International news outlets were knocking on the door of James Cook University's Distinguished Research Professor Bill Laurance once he announced he was kicking off a field survey in Cape York earlier this year to try to find the extinct Tasmanian tiger, known as the thylacine.

He had heard an account by a long-time camper and outdoorsman from north Queensland who claims he spotted four of the animals one night back in 1983.

"He gave a fair dinkum sounding description of what he had seen," Professor Laurance said.

"Ostensibly, he claims he had seen four animals on two occasions on one night with a spotlight with the closest encounter being about 20 feet away."

It was when the man mentioned the animal's eyeshine colour, red, that Professor Laurance's ears pricked up.

"The main thing I was interested in doing was trying to think what would be the alternatives to a thylacine, no one really knows what their eyeshine is," he said.

"Taking at face value what he said you could certainly discount feral pigs, dingoes, wild dog hybrids, swamp wallabies and things that could easily be confused (with it).

"I thought it was an interesting account ... there wasn't anything to suggest there was a lack of credibility."

The thylacine was believed to have become extinct in 1936 after the last known tiger died in Hobart Zoo.

Scientists believe the species was once widespread throughout mainland Australia, largely based on thylacine-like animals found in Aboriginal rock art across northern Australia and bones found on the mainland.

Once the survey was announced, a range of plausible and detailed descriptions of possible sightings of the thylacine started pouring through and were added to a geographical "database" of sightings in the area.

"We have now a fairly extensive geographic database of "sightings" of thylacines, a few of which stand out as being really interesting and others that are anecdotal," Professor Laurance said.

The survey, which will be led by James Cook University's Dr Susan Abell, will dovetail with her flagship project to document a number of species that are in decline in the area such as the northern quoll, several bandicoots, northern bettong and some native rodents.

"We know there are a bunch of species that have seemingly become extremely rare compared to what we have known in the past," Professor Laurance said.

"The flagship project focuses strongly on these mysterious declines and to try to understand what might be responsible for them.

"Even though we think the chances of encountering a thylacine are extremely small, we have decided to go ahead and incorporate it into a robust scientifically rigorous scientific survey, using pretty cutting edge techniques."

Included in their field kit will be more than 50 high-tech "camera traps" to survey sites.

The field trip will cover an undisclosed area in the Cape York and will kick off towards the end of the month.

Professor Laurance said BBC and Animal Planet had expressed interest in sending camera operators out to join the survey, however he warned them of unlikely chance of spotting the thylacine.

"I keep saying to the documentarians you had better make this like The Blair Witch Project because it is not unlikely you are going to see the witch," he said.

The survey will be conducted under the auspices of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) at James Cook University.

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