Drop bear
Encyclopedia
A drop bear is a fictitious Australia
n marsupial
. Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koala
s 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 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.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n marsupial
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...
. Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
s 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
Jackalope
The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail . The word "jackalope" is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antalope", an archaic spelling of "antelope". It is also known as Lepus...
, hoop snake
Hoop snake
The hoop snake is a legendary creature of the United States and Australia. The hoop snake appears in the Pecos Bill stories; although it is his description of hoop snakes with which most people are most familiar, stories of the creature predate those fictional tales considerably. Several sightings...
, wild haggis
Wild Haggis
Wild haggis is a fictional creature said to be native to the Scottish Highlands. It is comically claimed to be the source of haggis, a traditional Scottish dish that is in fact made from the innards of sheep .According to some sources, the wild haggis's left and right legs are of different lengths...
, or snipe hunt
Snipe hunt
A snipe hunt, a form of wild-goose chase that is also known as a fool's errand, is a type of practical joke that involves experienced people making fun of credulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task...
.
It is often suggested that doing ridiculous things like having forks in the hair or Vegemite
Vegemite
Vegemite is a dark brown Australian food paste made from yeast extract. It is a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits, and filling for pastries...
or toothpaste spread behind the ears will deter the creatures.
In popular culture
- Drop bears appear in the novel The Last ContinentThe Last ContinentThe Last Continent is the twenty-second Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time traveling such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder"...
by Terry PratchettTerry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
. In the novel, the wizard RincewindRincewindRincewind is a fictional character appearing in several of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. He is a failed student at the Unseen University for wizards in Ankh-Morpork, and is often described by scholars as "the magical equivalent to the number zero". He spends just about all of his time...
travels through the Australia-like continent of Fourecks, and is attacked by most of the creatures while travelling 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 do not really exist. - Escape Velocity NovaEscape Velocity NovaEscape Velocity Nova is a computer game by Ambrosia Software, in collaboration with ATMOS. It is the third game in the Escape Velocity series of space trading & combat games.-History and development:...
, an Australian-designed 2002 computer game from Ambrosia Software, contains attacks from alleged drop bears in Auroran Empire space. These drop bears are actually young Auroran warriors in disguise. The game also features drop bear attacks and repellents. Purchase of the repellent, which cannot subsequently be discarded, dramatically increases the rate of drop bear attacks. - A Bundaberg RumBundaberg RumBundaberg Rum is a dark rum produced in Bundaberg, Australia, often referred to as "Bundy".The Bundaberg Distilling Company owns its own cola-producing facility, which supplies the cola for its ready-to-drink Bundaberg Rum and Cola products.-History:...
ad features Australian male campers using stories about drop bears to lure attractive female backpackers into moving their tents close to them. The blonde backpackers are incredulous until the Bundy Rum bear (a large talking polar bear often featured in the company's advertising) drops out of a tree near the edge of the lake, destroying one of the girls' tents. - In Warren EllisWarren EllisWarren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
's comic NextwaveNextwaveNextwave is a comic book series by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen, published by Marvel Comics between 2006 and 2007.-Concept:The series was written exclusively in two-issue story arcs, a choice deliberately bucking the trend in modern American comics toward decompression...
, in the July 2006 # 5 issue, weaponized drop bears are deployed from an air-based military platform. - Australian cartoonist Ian Dalkin had a popular cartoon strip 'Derek the Drop-Bear' which ran in the Sydney Sun, a defunct Sydney afternoon newspaper.
- Drop bears are one of the many enemies described in the d20 Menace ManualD20 Menace ManualThe d20 Menace Manual is a listing of statistics for animals, aliens, and other potential enemies, for use in the d20 Modern role-playing game...
. - The Australian MuseumAustralian MuseumThe Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
has an entry on drop bears on its website. - JoystiqJoystiqJoystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
.com's Xbox 360 Fancast podcast made Drop Bears a regular theme on their weekly podcast before it was cancelled. It rapidly became a memeMemeA meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
between the hosts and their listeners.