Tantanoola tiger
/ˈtantənuːlə ˈtʌɪɡə
/noun Australian
A tiger-like animal reportedly seen in the wilderness: perhaps the Tantanoola tiger has cousins in this area...
- Adam Lindsay Gordon is my poet, Father Julian Tenison-Woods my priest, and the Tantanoola tiger a mere flash of colour in the shadows thrown by trees.
- The farmer spotted a creature running away with a sheep in its jaws and took a shot, hitting it in its side, and the reign of the Tantanoola tiger was over.
- The fabled Tantanoola tiger turned out to be an Assyrian wolf, believed to have survived a shipwreck.
Origin
Late 19th century: from Tantanoola, a town in South Australia near where a Bengal tiger reportedly went missing from a circus in 1884.