Daniel Moynihan was born in Melbourne in 1948 and studied at Preston Technical College in 1964-65 and RMIT 1966-67 under Tate Adams and Udo Sellbach. He has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions since 1967 and from 1968-73 he made paintings and etchings full-time.

Moynihan’s interest in Tasmanian tigers started in the early 1970s; this was sparked by an interest in Australian flora and fauna, and also after he encountered colonial lithographs by Gould of Tasmanian subjects. The tiger first appeared in a painting by Moynihan in 1972. ‘Tiger man’ was based partly on drawings made while Moynihan was in Paris of a handicapped man he saw on the Metro. It was also influenced by the street life of New York and a performance of Richard III by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Melbourne in 1986.

He had access to the archives of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, where he drew specimens of the Tasmanian Tiger. Daniel is represented in most state and regional galleries.