When i was a teenager i used to go on camps with other guys aged 13-17 with the cadets and one thing sticks in my memory of those times...DROP BEARS...
now i hear you asking what is a drop bear...well to put it simply its a great animal used to scare the living daylights out of kids who are on there first bushcamp, i can remember one time when we had 8 boys all sleeping in the one 2 man tent after a night of stories around the fire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
drop bear (or
dropbear) is a fictitious
Australian marsupial.
[1] Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious,
carnivorous koalas (although the Koala is not a bear) that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above.
[2] They are an example of local lore intended to frighten and confuse outsiders and amuse locals, similar to the
jackalope,
hoop snake,
wild haggis, or
snipe hunt.
It is often suggested that doing ridiculous things like having forks in the hair or
Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears will deter the creatures.
[3]
And from the Australian Museum;
Animal Species:Drop Bear
The Drop Bear, Thylarctos plummetus, is a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala.
Identification
Around the size of a leopard or very large dog
with coarse orange fur with some darker mottled patterning (as seen in
most Koalas). It is a heavily built animal with powerful forearms for
climbing and holding on to prey. It lacks canines, using broad powerful
premolars as biting tools instead.
Size range
120kg, 130cm long, 90 cm at the shoulder.
Distribution
Drop Bears can be found in the densely forested
regions of the Great Dividing Range in South-eastern Australia. However
there are also some reports of them from South-east South Australia,
Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island.
Habitat
Closed canopy forest as well as open woodland on the margins of dense forest. Never encountered near roads or human habitation.
Drop Bears hunt by ambushing ground dwelling animals from above,
waiting up to as much as four hours to make a surprise kill. Once prey
is within view, the Drop Bear will drop as much as eight metres
to pounce on top of the unsuspecting victim. The initial impact often
stuns the prey, allowing it to be bitten on the neck and quickly
subdued.
There are some suggested folk remedies that are said to act as a
repellent to Drop Bears, these include having forks in the hair or
Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears. There is no evidence to
suggest that any such repellents work.
Classification
- Species:
- plummetus
- Genus:
- Thylarctos
Peace:)
