A drop bear (or dropbear) is a fictional Australian marsupial said to be related to the koala. This article is about mammals. ... For the drawing program, see KoalaPad/Painter. ...

Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koalas that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above. 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 hunting. This article deals with meat-eating animals. ... This article is about the folkloric animal. ... The hoop snake is a legendary creature of the United States. ... A fictional Wild Haggis specimen, Haggis Scoticus, as displayed in the Glasgow Kelvingrove gallery, next to a prepared example. ... Fools Errand redirects here. ...

Stories of drop bears are often told to unsuspecting foreign visitors to illustrate Australian deadpan humour. 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. Deadpan is a form of comedic delivery in which humour is presented without exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression. ... Vegemite on toast. ...

Basis of the Myth

There are several possible origins of the drop bear myth.

Some suggest that it is designed to discourage children from straying needlessly below eucalyptus trees, protecting them from the very real danger of getting hit by a falling branch. Arbitrary detachment of old branches is common with certain species of the eucalyptus, which are known as 'widow-makers' for this very reason. Similar theories are attached to the cone from the bunya tree. This article is about the plant genus. ... Mature female European Black Pine cone Male cones of a pine A cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. ... Binomial name (Molina) K. Koch Araucaria bidwillii is a species in the genus Araucaria, family Araucariaceae. ...

Another possibility is that the myth is based on a real animal. It appears to have first appeared during the latter half of the 20th century, and may have its origins with Phascolarctos stirtoni or perhaps Thylacoleo carnifex, which belong to a group of extinct animals known as Australian megafauna. The prehistoric creatures were approximately twice the size of modern koalas. T. carnifex is thought to have been an arboreal (tree-dwelling) predator that may well have ambushed prey by dropping on it from overhead branches, similar to how cougars often hunt. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Binomial name Thylacoleo carnifex (Owen, 1858) The Marsupial Lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) is an extinct species of carnivorous marsupial, that lived in Australia from about 24 million years ago, during the late Oligocene, and became extinct about 50,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... Marsupial Lion skeleton in Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. ... This article is about the biological organisms known as trees. ... For other uses, see Cougar (disambiguation). ...

However, despite the merit or otherwise of these putative explanations it seems far more likely that drop bears started out simply as an excellent example of the dry Australian wit. This often is expressed by scaring newcomers or foreigners with alarming stories of the alleged dangers of the bush that are almost too incredible to believe but nevertheless the delivery is so deadpan that it convinces the listener of its veracity, unless he or she is uncommonly perceptive or is familiar with this type of joke. This approach can be a test of the new person and he or she will be well regarded if they see through the joke, even if tentatively at first.

Drop bears in popular culture

• Dropbears are mentioned by prisoners in the novel "The Third Day The Frost" by John Marsden. The prisoners are attempting to scare the soldier supervising them, and succeed.
• Dropbears appear in the novel The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett. In that novel, the wizard Rincewind travels through the Australia-like continent of Fourecks, and is attacked by some of the creatures while traveling through the desert. Rincewind is wearing the traditional pointed wizard's hat, which serves to protect Rincewind's head from the stunning blow of the bear, and stun the bear itself; when the first bear's attack is unsuccessful, a massive cadre of dropbears begins to fall from the trees out of sheer astonishment. When hearing about this later, the locals insist that drop bears don't really exist.
• The Dropbears was a Sydney, Australia band from 1981 until 1985, with members Johnny Bachelor, Chriss Cross, Jamie Elliot, Phil Hall, Robert Hearne, Michael Knapp and Simon Rudin. They had a minor charting hit with Shall We Go in 1985.[1]
• EV Nova, an Australian-designed 2002 computer game from Ambrosia Software contains attacks from Drop Bears in Auroran Empire space. Buying the Drop Bear Repellant from various Auroran outfitters causes you to get increased chances in being attacked by a Drop Bear.
• A 2004 commercial for Bundaberg Rum showed three Scandinavian women camping under a tree, when four Australian men stated that they shouldn't camp there as there were "drop bears - a bigger meaner koala" and that "they grab your head". Laughing this off they return to setting up camp when "Bundy Bear", the seven-foot tall polar bear mascot for Bundaberg Rum, falls from the tree above. The girls then run in fear into the Australian men's camp.^[1]
• Drop bears (implied to be genetically engineered koalas) are used as an air-to-ground anti-personnel weapon in the Marvel comic Nextwave.
• Drop bears featured repeatedly in webcomic IndieTits by Jeph Jacques in November 2005. When their existence was refuted by one of the characters the others explained that they must be real as they have a dedicated Wikipedia page.
• Drop Bears was the name of a cover band from Brisbane, Australia that was named without the knowledge of the other Australian band by the same name (1997-2003).
• Drop Bear was the name of a track by Sydney underground band Salacious Crumb in 1997. It was from an EP called Brainwash.
• Drop Bear was also the name of a track released in 1999 on Full Cycle Records (FCY021) by Bristol based drum and bass producer DJ Die.
• Drop bears are among the enemies presented in the d20 Menace Manual.
• The Drop Bear Café was an establishment in Darby Street, Newcastle, NSW. The surrounding area has a lot of backpacker accommodation, so the Café mainly catered to tourists.
• Sydney cartoonist Ian Dalkin produced "Derek the Dropbear" for the last 18 months worth of editions of the Sydney Sun newspaper. The Sun folded in the late 80s. Derek the Dropbear is in the process of being relaunched online (2007).
• Drop bears feature in some strips of the webcomic User Friendly, starting April 22nd, 2005
• The hit TV show American Chopper features an episode where the crew from Orange County Choppers are informed of the infamous "Drop Bears".
• The "Hell Paradise Goala" from the Kyo Kara Maoh series resembles a Drop Bear.
• Dropbear is the name of a small SSH daemon in "embedded" Unix-like platforms, such as OpenWRT for wireless routers.^[2]

The Last Continent is the twenty-second Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1998, that parodies Australian people and culture, as well as the famous Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max movies and the popular Australian song Waltzing Matilda. ... Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England[1]) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. ... Rincewind the Wizzard is a fictional character appearing in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, several of which feature him as the central character. ... See also: Discworld (world) This article concerns the fictional geography of Terry Pratchetts Discworld, featured in the long running series of novels of the same name. ... The Dropbears were a band who played in the Sydney live music scene in the early 1980s who also had a couple of national chart hits and received national airplay. ... This article is about the metropolitan area in Australia. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... Escape Velocity Nova (EV Nova or EVN) is a computer game by Ambrosia Software, in collaboration with ATMOS. It is the third game in the Escape Velocity series. ... Bundaberg Rum is a dark rum produced in Bundaberg, Australia, often referred to as Bundy. Bundaberg Rum was first produced 1888 after some local sugar millers proposed using the excess molasses produced in their mills to make rum. ... Nextwave is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, that debuted in 2006 and was cancelled after issue #12,[1] which was published in February 2007. ... IndieTits is a webcomic by Jeph Jacques. ... Jeph Jacques (b. ... This article is about minor characters in the fictional Star Wars universe who reside, or at least appear primarily, on the planet Tatooine. ... Full Cycle Recordings is a record label based in Bristol, England specialising in drum and bass. ... DJ Die, real name Daniel Cawsman, was born and spent his formative years in Devon, UK, before moving to Bristol as a teenager. ... The D20 Menace Manual is a listing of statistics, mainly for animals, aliens, and other potential enemies, for use in the D20 Modern role-playing game. ... For the concept in software engineering, see user-friendliness. ... American Chopper: The Series is a Learning Channel reality television series produced by Pilgrim Films & Television Inc. ... Kyo Kara Maoh! ) is a Japanese series of novels written by Tomo Takabayashi. ... Dropbear is a software package written by Matt Johnston that provides a Secure Shell-compatible server and client. ... In computing, Secure shell, or SSH, is both a computer program and an associated network protocol designed for logging into and executing commands on a remote computer. ... The term Daemon has several meanings: Daemon (mythology) - see also Demon Daemon (computer software), a background process Dæmon (His Dark Materials) in the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels His Dark Materials Daemon (Warhammer) Daemon (Warcraft) Daemon Sadi (SaDiablo) is a character in the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. ... A router, an example of an embedded system. ... Diagram of the relationships between several Unix-like systems A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. ... OpenWrt is a GNU/Linux based firmware for embedded devices such as residential gateways. ... This article is about a computer networking device. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULEQpUY_crc
2. ^ http://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html Dropbear homepage, retrieved 24 July 2007

• Drop Bears - The Truth - A (probably humoristic) web site about drop bears.

See also

• Fictional national animals
• Bunyip
• Yowie
• Queensland Tiger