In the darkest depths of 2020, a charming story brought light to our lives.
A group of researchers in the United States shone a black light — a type of ultraviolet light — on a preserved platypus pelt to find that it glows.
The story went globally viral and researchers at the Western Australian Museum were inspired to shine a black light on many specimens, such as bilbies and wombats, finding that these marsupials also glowed.
This left ABC Radio Hobart journalist Lucie Cutting wondering; do thylacines follow this rule and would they glow under black light?
Thylacines, or Tassie tigers, were the world's largest carnivorous marsupials before they were hunted to extinction.
In 1936 Benjamin, the last known thylacine, died of exposure at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart.
The species continues to fascinate people around the world, with some believing it is still alive and others plotting its return.
Were our dreams dimmed forever?
Some of the few thylacine pelts on display globally are at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, our first port of call on the mission to find out if Tasmanian tigers glow.
Lucie and I approached the institution asking if we could pay their thylacine pelts a visit and shine a black light on them.
We waited, nervous and excited for their response, but received a "no" and an explanation as to why.
Black light is damaging to museum specimens because it causes irreparable harm at a fast rate.
Museums are very protective of examples of the species as there are about only 50 registered complete pelts in collections around the world.
To shine a black light on a specimen may add another piece to a confusing puzzle of species that glow, but at what cost to the few remaining thylacine pelts in the world?
The museum was unwilling to take that risk but provided us with contact details for someone who could assist.
Our knight with shining black light
Conservator David Thurrowgood's imagination was captured when he saw the story about biofluorescent platypuses and he spent the following years finding the equipment to apply the same test to thylacine fur.
Mr Thurrowgood is a highly regarded independent conservator who cares for and preserves museum specimens.
He is currently designing a state-of-the-art museum case for a thylacine skin.
The conservator has a small tuft of fur and half a whisker from a thylacine to experiment with.
"I've been keeping an eye out for this particular instrument, the fluorescence microscope, to be able to do this work," Mr Thurrowgood said as he welcomed us to his Launceston laboratory.
"I have progressively been building it all up and setting it aside so that we could do this.
"To put it to thylacine hair for the first time is quite an exciting moment."
Thylacine remains are precious and using these small samples might be the only opportunity that any of us would ever have to answer this question.
"Ordinarily this wouldn't be possible," Mr Thurrowgood emphasised.
Seeing an old specimen in new light
There is palpable excitement in the room; Lucie is filming and I can feel my heart beating as I nervously clasp the microphone and Mr Thurrowgood prepares the specimen.
His microscope connects to screens that display the century-old dark and scraggly hairs.
With a subtle flourish, Mr Thurrowgood shrouds the instrument with a sheet to block out the room's light.
Then, the moment of truth.
He lifts the sheet and points a black light at the fur. And?
"It is glowing."
Mr Thurrowgood says the triumphant words as the fur on the screen lights up an impossible, strong, luminous blue.
"I can't believe it's glowing."
All three of us are ecstatic.
Kept in the dark, until now
As we stare at the screen Mr Thurrowgood explains that each strongly glowing dot on the hair is pigmentation that gives the hair colour.
"I can see all these tiny spots of glow right where the pigment particles are. That is exciting — that is such a result," he said.
The hairs used by Mr Thurrowgood had come from one of the world's best-preserved thylacine pelts and he is responsible for its return to Australia.
The pelt was procured by eccentric New Zealand collector Archibald Robertson in the 1920s.
He had a private museum in his house and kept the specimen in a dark, almost airtight drawer.
It seldom saw light and retained a deep, lush caramel look — unlike its battered and faded counterparts in museums today.
"It's unfettered, so its hair is in beautiful condition. It actually looks the way that thylacines used to," Mr Thurrowgood said.
In recent years the thylacine pelt had found a new home when Mr Robertson's daughter Janet Withers loaned it to her friends at a canoe hire and taxidermy shop, where luckily it did not sustain much damage.
The pelt was brought to the attention of the scientific community when a visitor to the canoe shop spotted it and put a photo up on social media.
After analysing the photos, Mr Thurrowgood went to meet Ms Withers in Whanganui, New Zealand and acquired the specimen for testing and authentication in Australia.
It was then purchased by the National Museum of Australia. It is recognised as one of the world's best-preserved thylacine pelts.
The warm glow fades
As we continue to stare at the glowing hair the mood changes and becomes more sombre.
"Not very long ago they were around us in the wild and they were destroyed by ignorance," Mr Thurrowgood said.
"The same thing is happening now with climate change and changes in the environment.
"There are fantastic animals and plants that are under great stress and it's growing all the time … to lose any more would be an absolute tragedy."
If the thylacine was alive today we would know so much more about its behaviour and how it impacted the Tasmanian environment.
"Doing science [experiments] like this shows just how many wonders there are still to be discovered from our natural environment," Mr Thurrowgood said.
"It's also a slightly sad moment to see that this is something that's gone from us."
Illuminating discoveries leave more questions
"I'm not surprised because we've also tried it on thylacine and we found the same thing," said Kenny Travouillon, of the WA Museum, when I told him of our discovery.
Dr Travouillon and his team have been undertaking the "biggest study" ever of mammals that glow under black light, with their findings to be published soon.
In a sneak peek at his upcoming research, Dr Travouillon revealed that the thylacine's living relatives — marsupial carnivores such as quolls and devils — also glowed under black light.
"Shining black light on these specimens allows us to see a range of colours that is not usually visible to humans," he said.
Many animals can see into the UV spectrum so would be able to see these colours, but they are not likely to perceive it as a glow.
"We are probably in our infancy of understanding how animals communicate with their fur," Dr Travouillon said.
"There's a lot of interest in this topic and I think it's just the tip of the iceberg and pretty good to know more as we study this."
For Mr Thurrowgood, it's the idea of a living thylacine at night under black light that stays with him.
"Hopefully people will be really excited to learn how different thylacines actually did look," he said.
