Talk:Drop bear

It is not a myth

My name is John, and I grew up in Latrobe Valley, in the Australian Bush, where there ARE Not dropbears. There has been a coverup by our council for as long as I have been born i am kidding they r so fake. They are common knowledge in that particular area of bush just kidding i am trying to fool all of you. I can really say that I have not seen them myself. I have been trying to find some accurate information on the bear on the Internet and I am laughing with the jokes and articles calling it folklore. As soon as I venture out into this small conceded area of bushland I will return with drawings so you can all have the chance to see the amazing dropbear.

Dont ruin it

The Drop Bear legend is much more fun for us Aussies if Americans dont know about it, I mean they are gullible but if they have read about it here they are not going to believe it... :(

Friend of mine is Aussie, she already filled me in. Sorry. ;-) --Cuervo 21:12, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The people who would believe in Dropbears aren't normally the kind of people you would find browsing an internet encyclopedia. ;) ~Bongomanrae

I was told a story about during a military exercise in the US, between American and Australian Forces. Australian soldiers told of the Drop Bears, about the horrors where they'd jump down from the trees and ravage your head with their sharp claws and menacing fangs, and that the repellant was to wear Vegemite on the face and on the neck. They explained this was why Vegemite was created. Apparently it travelled so far up, that Australian commanders would tell the same thing to their US counterparts. So during the next exercise to be held in Australia, American commanders warned their men on the dangers of dropbears, and to regularly wear Vegemite when travelling in the bush. I bet that would have been a fantastic silent laugh. :P --takagawa-kun 16:17, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Theres already plenty of info on drop bears on the internet, they can find out about it at lots of other places [1] -- Astrokey44|talk 03:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

IMO

IMO, the background of this bit of folklore is that eucalypt trees shed branches without warning, so it is unwise to camp beneath them. Yes, people have been killed. One tells one's kids about the drop bears for the same reason that germans dark-age Germans told kids terrifying stories about kids who get lost in the forest. --(From User:203.10.231.229, moved here by Ardonik 02:03, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC))

Be that as it may, a widow maker is not a randomly dropped branch in SA, but rather one which has been weakened by fire and drops sometime after.

from VfD

On 29 July 2004, this article was nominated for deletion. The consensus reached was to keep the article. See Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Drop Bear for a record of the discussion. Rossami 00:35, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

vandalism by 4.43.140.129

The above editor has deleted the article category and external link for no apparent reason, as well as vandalising my user page. --Centauri 03:05, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Well no wonder!! You're giving the game away you deadbeat!! Drop bears are a national treasure, used to protect out forests from the ravishes of roaming American and Japanese tourists.

The ravishes of roaming Americans? Did you mean radishes. --Gene_poole 11:12, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

who's copying here?

I stumbled over this one: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Drop-Bear - and it's a precise copy of the wikipedia text. is that actually permitted?

Yes this GNU

Methinks that the pictures are scary

Hoop Snake

Lesser known, but still quite fearsome, is the Hoop Snake, which bites its own tail and forms its body into a rigid circle. Having established the 'hoop', the snake rolls silently down a hill towards its victim, using the momentum of its descent to uncoil in a sudden vicious strike.

Keeps tourists and bushwalkers checking nervously over their shoulders as they descend an incline. Captainmax 04:57, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Very amusing... haven't heard that one before.--Centauri 05:53, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I've heard of hoop snakes before but half a world away. It was in reference to the Ozark Mountains. Andromeda321 23:03, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

the hoop snake derives from truck tyre remnants lying beside the highway -- when a big 18-wheeler has a blowout they often leave behind a hoop of tyre rubber (along with lots of other bits of tyre) that looks like a round black snake [biting its tail]. --Stewartjohnson 13:58, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

we have an article on the Hoop snake. it could use some revision and expansion. anyone? Lisapollison 03:41, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Update.

Just a brief update to keep the great Australian conspiracy under wraps. Little do they know of our Steve Irwin cloning plants... Anyhow. Yes, the Jan 17 updates are erroneous, maybe even false (have you ever lost a family member to a drop bear - I haven't. But I might!). But they are temporary in order to achieve a specific effect elsewhere. Replacement with the previous "correct" data will by no means earn my ire or even complaint.

Cryptozoology

Drop bears are humorous, mythical "creatures". There is a slight possibly that they are loosely based on real extinct creatures. They are no more cryptozoological than the jackalope or the pacific midwestern tree octopus - ie not at all. --Gene_poole 03:39, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

"They are no more cryptozoological than the jackalope" - not so fast. The jackalope os probably best explained by a hyperkeratosis disease, but I'd like to see someone get behind the origins of the myth. At present, I can't tell whether it's a fanciful invention by people of European origin (which is possible; it has all the ingredients of a droll tale), or inspired by Aboriginal mythology (and in which case it the possibility of a Thylacoleo link deserves serious research. Not into the drop bear phenomenon of course, but into the underlying Aboriginal tale(s). Dysmorodrepanis 13:30, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I take your point. I suspect it's a white Australian invention for which people are now trying to back-engineer other origins - but I can point to no sources to prove that.--Gene_poole 13:59, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Regardless of the humour value involved in telling visitng Americans that vicious, carnivorous Koala Bears will descend from the Eucalypts and tear out their jugulars if they aren't careful, the fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a "Drop Bear" and this article really should be edited to reflect that- Commander Zulu

Widow-makers?

I've lived in various parts of Australia and have never heard of eucalypts described as widow-makers. Is there a source for this claim? --Gene_poole 05:26, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

It's not an uncommon term amongst the loggers and foresters i've worked with. --Beervatar 06:52, 16 Sept 2006

The SA CFS refer to trees whose branches have been weakened by fire and which then fall )either a branch or the whole tree) some time after the fire, when they appear to be safe, as widow makers.

Pop culture

Does anyone else think it's a little ridiculous to have a list of pop culture references here that's longer than the actual article? I'm assuming most of the games etc described are fairly inconsequential. Anyone care to do some pruning before I leap in with the secateurs? --Gene_poole 04:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Hence, this is what a drop bear is. The process has a another name. 'Widow Makers.' Again, Indigenous Lore, that non-Indigenous people don't understand and pick up 1/10th the tale of and go on silly about. Its linked to that bunyip + koala affinity and its the third aspect. However, if yah don't know what a bunyip is, yah canna work it out.

Can we have that in English please? --Gene_poole 14:14, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Rabies=

The version of the drop bear myth I have always heard/told involves a sort of Rabies that affects the Koalas. That doesn't seem to be reflected in the page at all. 04:16, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Never heard that one before. Care to expand on it? --Gene_poole 04:33, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Picture?

I'm an Aussie, and was wondering could someone please upload a picture of a drop bear here? It doesn't matter whether it's photoshopped or not... but just to make the page more appealing? Megan102 00:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

There's now a pic! Thanks to the person who uploaded it!! Megan102 07:24, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm currently trying to get that picture removed. Any illustration still has to meet criteria of coming from a reliable serious source. I don't think many drop bear images appear. Possible media include the Bundy ads (which utilise a polar bear, not a koala) and the cover of Killer Koala by Kenneth Cook (My brother had this book, so I know it has a dangerous looking koala on at least that edition)--ZayZayEM 03:18, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

First of all... I love that book, Killer Koala!! I haven't read it for ages though. IMO, the picture should be added back up there, but with a caption stating that it's an "artist's impression of a drop bear" or something along the lines of that.Megan102 11:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, here's a taxobox then for your viewing pleasure, which was removed form the article... First person to guess where the mouth comes from gets... um... immunity from drop bears! Brisvegas 04:10, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Drop bear
Conservation status
Data Deficient
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	Diprotodontia
Suborder:	Vombatiformes
Family:	Phascolarctidae
Genus:	Phascolarctos
Species:	P. extremius
Binomial name
Phascolarctos extremius (Australian folklore)

Why does one need a photoshopped picture? Just show the teeth and claws of a real koala :) Mattabat 06:07, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Missing facts

Drop bears are not real - I'll admit that much even though I'm an Aussie, but it is based on real life much more closely than is covered in this article. The only basis for this myth mentioned in this article is the dropping branches, and the extinct species. Rabid koalas were mentioned above - a version of the myth I'm not actually familiar with (which is saying something), however it does sound like a misinterpretation of one story I've heard. (I might point out that rabies does not occur in Australia, so it is impossible to find a rabid koala.)

The story I've heard actually basically involves a normal koala dropping out of a tree to land on someone and attack them. The theory was that it was mating season, and the koala was very territorial, hence why it attacked a human. The Wikipedia article on koalas actually states they are quite aggressive towards humans when disturbed, so this does not sound like an unlikely scenario. It's also not unheard of for koalas to fall out of trees. If a human is underneath the koala when it falls, then naturally the koala will land on this person and hang on to them, rather than bounce off, hence perpetrating the drop bear myth. However, it is usually the baby koalas that fall out of trees, and they don't tend to attack. The mother might attack, though, if the person the baby lands on tries to hold onto the baby, but I'm guessing that she'll climb out of the tree, rather than jump.

On a side note, it is absolutely hilarious when a koala lands on someone who has just heard the drop bear myth - imagine mass hysteria. lol :D

Also, Americans are not the main focus of this myth. City-slickers (mostly including Aussies), young children and (stupid? gullible?) foreigners in general tend to be the main victims of this myth. Due to America's unfortunate reputation of stupidity, Americans do tend to end up being victimised by this myth a little more than people from other countries, but they are by no means the major focus of this myth - the amount of seemingly gullible city-slickers in Australia is much higher than the amount of seemingly gullible Americans.

If I don't get any objections, i'll add my contributions to this article. If you don't like them you can always edit or remove them. Bill Killed The Unicorns 09:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

This is mere speculation. Can you point us to any documented reports of koalas falling out of trees and landing on top of people? I'd suggest the relative scarcity of both koalas and people in Australia make this an almost incomprehensibly rare likelihood. --Gene_poole 09:38, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I personally know two people who have had koalas land on them. Since it very rarely ends in significant injury to the person involved (if any), it doesn't exactly enter the media, so such references will be hard to come by. Koalas falling out of trees are well documented, so there's no debate there. Also, one method of catching koalas involves making them fall out of a tree, so it's not unlikely that a falling koala was a little off-course and ended up falling on one of the people holding the net. See also: http://www.cqkoala.org.au/trakcatch.htm

Since drop bears are a made up story, it's going to be a bit difficult to get a reference on them. There's plenty of sites people have published where they've written their own version of the myth, but I have trouble seeing these as being any more or less reliable than the written testimony of an Aussie wikipedian. Best of luck with your research. Bill Killed The Unicorns

Can we please stop being dicks about this and put it in? Show some Aussie pride and keep up the legacy and fool the world?:: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.100.254.54 (talk) 02:30, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Leap Bears

When keeping a watchful eye on the trees for drop bears, don't forget to keep the other eye watching the ground for leap bears. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.31.44.2 (talk) 08:53, August 23, 2007 (UTC)

My own viewpoint

Allow me to share my own experience with the legendary drop bear. Not long ago, I was vacationing in northern Australia when I too heard tell of this 'drop bear'. At first I was somewhat worried, but I soon realized it was merely a joke. What a laugh we all had! Imagine it, a bear that just drops out of a tree and tries to slice you into pieces! It's simply ridiculous!

Now, the man who told me this was a genial little Aboriginal fellow named K'ri'di'wei'awisdk'askd. He really enjoyed getting one over on us naive tourist types! What a riot! He described the drop bear as being slightly larger than a koala, but with a red face and three inch curved claws and dark brown fur! Its back legs are slightly bowed whereas its front legs much resemble a common monkey's! When I asked, K'ri'di claimed the scientific name was 'Droppus bearus', and this, my friends, is when I first grew suspicious! Also, there were no trees anywhere around! But one never knows!

Beware the drop bear! A ha ha ha ha ha!

MGlosenger 21:20, 15 September 2007 (UTC)