A farmer has found a terrifying fanged beast which has been ‘assumed extinct for more than 100 years’.

Pao Ling Tsai’s suspicions arose when his poultry started mysteriously disappearing at his farm in South Australia.

He discovered the mysterious fanged beast and took some photos before it ran away and he decided to contact Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to set up some traps.

‘I expected to find a cat, but I found this endangered animal,’ Tsai revealed to ABC South East SA. ‘It was incredible. I had no idea what it was at first.’

The wildlife service found the rare species inside the trap and identified it as the spotted-tailed quoll, also known as the tiger quoll, on Thursday.

There are believed to be only 14,000 left of the endangered spotted quoll in the wild, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation.

NPWS Limestone Coast district ranger Ross Anderson told Newsweek: ‘They’re considered extinct here as a result of loss of habitat, predation and competition with things like cats and foxes.

‘We can’t be sure where it’s come from. Is it an animal that still exists as a relic population? Is that something that has escaped from captivity? Or is it just a lone animal that’s what a really long way.

‘It may be a lone ranger that has travelled a long distance, a member of a relict population or an escape from captivity.’

The NPWS has since ‘set more traps’ in the hopes of either trapping or filming ‘more of them’.

He added: ‘The traps that we’ve set won’t harm an animal. We wouldn’t recommend people try to trap them or interact with them themselves, however, but trail cameras are a really good way of recording and monitoring any suspected quoll populations or activity in the local area.’

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