TASMANIAN tiger hunter Mike Williams is confident evidence of a living thylacine will emerge sooner rather than later because of the growing popularity of crash cameras in cars.

Mr Williams, who led an international team of naturalists searching for the thylacine last year, has urged Tasmanian motorists to invest in the technology.

“If you live in an area where you think thylacines have been seen, then crash-test cameras are the go,” Mr Williams said.

Mr Williams, who is from New South Wales, has returned to Tasmania to gather more thylacine information and is cruising around the North-East and North-West with one of the digital video cameras attached to his car.

He is interviewing about a dozen people who say they have seen the thylacine, including farmers, trappers and motorists.

Mr Williams is also going over archival evidence and camping in areas where thylacines are likely to be, looking for evidence in situ.

“I believe they are still out there,” he said.

He said Tasmanian trappers had provided him with extremely reliable accounts of seeing multiple thylacines in the mid-1980s.

Many other sightings have been from motorists driving around the bush at dusk and night, including one from only 16 months ago.

“Post 1950, a large percentage of the sightings have been made by people in cars at night,” Mr Williams said. “That’s why crash-test camera technology on cars is so important.”

Mr Williams said the decline in the number of Tasmanian devils would have boosted the population of surviving thylacines, providing a greater window of opportunity for evidence of the animal’s existence.

Mr Williams’ search has gained the support of veteran thylacine hunter James Malley, who spent almost half a century searching for the elusive creature.

“I support him 100 per cent,” said Mr Malley, after meeting Mr Williams.

“All you can do is encourage these people.’’

Originally published as Smile tiger — it’s candid camera