Drop Bear!

If you’re an Australian, you know exactly what a Drop Bear is.

If you’re from anywhere else, you’ve probably heard of it and, even now, aren’t entirely sure if it’s real or myth.

And the truth is: no one really knows.

If you want to know where the stories started, you’ll probably get a different answer from anyone you ask. Maybe it was the army, trying to scare troops training in Australia. Or the Navy, reminding everyone of how tough they are. Perhaps it was a newspaper article, reporting on strange attacks in northern Queensland, or an advertisement in The Canberra Times. No one knows for sure. The true origins of the legends are lost to time.

What we do know is that the Australian Museum classifies them as Thylarctos plummetus, and describes them as “a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala that 'drops' on its prey.”

It’s said they’re about the size of a large dog or a leopard, with a mottled coat that helps them blend in with trees. They’re ambush predators: they wait in the foliage for prey to come into view, then drop as much as eight metres to pounce on their prey, using broad, powerful premolars to bite in and strong forearms with savage claws to grip. They bite through the spine, crushing bone, then drag their prey up into the tree to feed.

No one knows how many Drop Bears exist, but they have been reported in every state except Western Australia. However, they are most commonly found along the eastern coast of the country.

The good news is that humans are not their preferred prey: any attacks are considered accidental or self-defence. There have been no cases of fatal encounters with Drop Bears, thankfully.

My book, Bood in the Ferns, features the attack of a Drop Bear: a fearsome and terrifying encounter with an unexpected result.

Local superstition suggests a range of possible deterrents, from applying Vegemite or toothpaste behind the ears to wearing forks in your hair, tines up. However, there is no evidence to support that any of these repellents work.

None of these were available to Yip or Catch in my book, though: they had to fend off the attack the hard way!

Are there Drop Bears out there? We may never know for sure.

But if you’re in Australia, and you’re walking through a forest, beneath tall trees, and the world suddenly goes quiet, then beware the Drop Bear!