Drop bear

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Hoax in Australian folklore

title: "Drop bear" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["australian-legendary-creatures", "australian-humour", "fictional-koalas", "hoaxes-in-australia", "in-jokes", "mythological-marsupials", "2013-hoaxes"] description: "Hoax in Australian folklore" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Hoax in Australian folklore ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Koala_climbing_tree.jpg" caption="The [[koala]] is the main inspiration for the myth of the drop bear." alt="A koala walking along a branch, away from viewer"] ::

The drop bear (sometimes dropbear) is a hoax in contemporary Australian folklore featuring a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala. This imaginary animal is commonly spoken about in tall tales designed to scare tourists. While koalas are typically docile herbivores (and are not bears), drop bears are described as unusually large and vicious marsupials that inhabit treetops and attack unsuspecting people (or other prey) that walk beneath them by dropping onto their heads from above.

Although the drop bear originated as a hoax, observers have noted its similarities to Thylacoleo, a hypercarnivorous marsupial from the Late Pleistocene.

Origin

The origin of the drop bear myth is unknown. It has been attributed to a sketch in The Paul Hogan Show in which koalas jump out of the trees and attack a man. However, others say it began as a scary story for children, or as a trick played on soldiers visiting Australia for training.

A 1967 article in Army, the Australian Army's newspaper, mentions "a dreaded Drop Bear", and a 1976 article about an army base refers to "the legends and stories of drop bears and hoop snakes that supposedly originated there". Other early appearances in print include a Royal Australian Navy News article in 1978 and a classified advertisement in the Canberra Times in 1982.

Stories and tall tales

Stories about drop bears are generally used as an in-joke intended to frighten and confuse outsiders while amusing locals, similar to North American "fearsome critters" such as the jackalope. Tourists are the main targets of such stories. These tales are often accompanied by advice that the hearer adopt various tactics purported to deter drop bear attacks—including placing forks in the hair, having Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears or in the armpits, urinating on oneself, and only speaking English in an Australian accent.

Popularisation

The website of the Australian Museum contains an entry for the drop bear written in a serious tone similar to entries for other, real, species. The entry classifies the drop bear as Thylarctos plummetus and describes them as "a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the koala", the size of a leopard, having coarse orange fur with dark mottling, with powerful forearms for climbing and attacking prey, and a bite made using broad powerful premolars rather than canines. Specifically it states that they weigh 120 kg and have a length of 130 cm. The tongue-in-cheek entry was created for "silly season". The Australian Museum also established a small display in the museum itself, exhibiting artefacts which it stated "may, or may not, relate to actual drop bears."

Australian Geographic ran an article on its website on 1 April 2013 (April Fools' Day) purporting that researchers had found that drop bears were more likely to attack tourists than people with Australian accents. The article was based on a 2012 paper published in Australian Geographer, and despite referencing the Australian Museum entry on drop bears in several places, images included with the Australian Geographic article were sourced from Australian Geographer and did not match the Australian Museum's species description.

The drop bear hoax, using a polar bear, was humorously referenced in an advertisement for Bundaberg Rum.

In the Discworld novel The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett, drop bears inhabit the continent of Fourecks, a land portrayed as a parody of Australia. This version of the drop bear tale shows the animals with well-padded backsides to cushion their fall.

Australian Chris Toms and New Zealand musician Johnny Batchelor formed a band named Dropbears in 1981.

Similarities to ''Thylacoleo''

Observers have noted similarities between the drop bear and the specimen Thylacoleo. Like the drop bear, Thylacoleo (also called the "marsupial lion") was a hypercarnivorous marsupial found only in Australia.

A 2016 Nature study of claw marks in caves concluded the marsupial lions could climb rock faces as well as trees. In a 2018 study, paleontologists conjectured them to be ambush predators that would leap on unsuspecting prey. Incisions on bones of the extinct kangaroo Macropus titan suggest Thylacoleo fed in a similar way to modern cheetahs, using their sharp teeth to slice open the ribcage of their prey, thereby accessing the internal organs. They may have killed by using their front claws as either stabbing weapons, or as a way to grab their prey with strangulation or suffocation.

Explanatory notes

References

References

  1. (2010). "Troping the Masculine: Australian Animals, the Nation, and the Popular Imagination". Antipodes.
  2. Staff Writers. ''Herald Sun'', 24 October 2014. "[http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/australias-greatest-hoaxes-the-pranks-that-tricked-a-nation/story-fnpp4dl6-1227096265459 Australia's greatest hoaxes: the pranks that tricked a nation]".
  3. Switek, Brian. ''Slate'', "[http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2013/11/08/syfy_monsters_scary_species_that_should_be_movie_stars.html These Horrifying Creatures Ought to Be Movie Stars]".
  4. link. (10 May 2005 ", in ''Country News'', byline, 2 May 2005, accessed 4 April 2008)
  5. (2012). "Indirect Tracking of Drop Bears Using GNSS Technology". [[Australian Geographer]].
  6. (2010). "Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales". ReadHowYouWant.com.
  7. (18 December 2020). "The true and unadulterated history of the drop bear, Australia's most deadly – and most fake – predator". [[CNN]].
  8. (12 October 1967). "Realism, a bonus and a drop bear". Australian Army.
  9. (9 December 1976). "Silver ceremonial at Kapooka". Australian Army.
  10. (29 September 1978). "TOP END SPORT". Royal Australian Navy.
  11. Dorson, Richard M. ''Man and Beast in American Comic Legend.'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press, 1982.)
  12. 9781459620674
  13. (2010). "Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales". ReadHowYouWant.com.
  14. Livingston, C., Goldfinch, F. & Morgan, R. (2017). ''[https://journals.jcu.edu.au/etropic/article/view/3579/3467 Man-Eating Teddy Bears of the Scrub: Exploring the Australian Drop Bear Urban Legend]'', ''eTropic'' 16.1, [[James Cook University]], Australia. p. 84. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  15. (30 August 2019). "Drop bear". [[Australian Museum]].
  16. (17 August 2012). "Social Musings: Stories from July". Australian Museum.
  17. [https://australian.museum/blog-archive/at-the-museum/in-the-news/ Australian Museum – In the News Dec 2010] describes the entry as being inspired by "the 'silly season.'"
  18. Middleton, Amy. (1 April 2013). "Drop bears target tourists, study says". [[Australian Geographic]].
  19. (18 December 2020). "The true history of the drop bear, Australia's most fake, deadly predator". [[CNN]].
  20. "L-Space: Drop bear".
  21. "The true and unadulterated history of the drop bear, Australia's most deadly -- and most fake -- predator {{!}} US & World News {{!}} kctv5.com".
  22. Arman, Samuel D.. (2016-02-15). "Behaviour of the Pleistocene marsupial lion deduced from claw marks in a southwestern Australian cave". Scientific Reports.
  23. (2016-02-15). "Marsupial lion 'could climb trees'". BBC News.
  24. (2018). "New skeletal material sheds light on the palaeobiology of the Pleistocene marsupial carnivore, ''Thylacoleo carnifex''". PLOS ONE.
  25. (1981). "Cuts on Lancefield Bones: Carnivorous Thylacoleo, Not Humans, the Cause". Archaeology in Oceania.

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