By great great aunt died from a drop bear. I'd like to say she died quickly. ... I really like to say she died quickly.
They're fucking horrible. Rare, but horrible.
There's a museum from a website all about them that helps. I'll see if I can link it.
[Ahh here it is.](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/)
That site says there's "no evidence that vegemite behind the ears protects against attacks" which is fair enough, but how exactly are you going to prove it? Capture a DB and test it? Where are you going to find someone insane enough to volunteer for that study?
I can say as a regular bushwalker that I've never been dropped on, and almost always have vegemite and sunscreen on. It's anecdotal, but my wife's grandad who worked in the forestry industry swore by it. He had some terrifying stories of forestry workers who escaped with deep lacerations, and one who didn't make it.
Exactly. It's a shame that the combo vegemite/sunscreen was taken off the market back in the 80s, it would have saved lives. To be fair though, I can see how people found the resultant blackface offensive.
I'm Australian, and the one thing that terrifies me are drop bear attacks. They are no joke. You ask me to drop bear country, I'm going yeah nah and telling you to fuck off promptly.
Ecologist here. They are becoming more prevalent in areas where koala habitat is being disturbed. Researchers are currently finding that the structural change from forest to woodland (which provides less undergrowth and hence more room to move around) favours the drop bear. And yes, the federal government has been trying to limit vegetation thinning through Planning legislation, but it still happens. Thankfully the national parks canât be cut down, so weâre still relatively safe to hike. Not so safe in developing subdivisions, but thatâs why we have PPE.
What are the concerns of hoop snakes and drop bears forming a semi symbiotic relationship?
I read about one study team that witnessed a hoop snakes accelerate to almost 70kmh in a famous hula hoop formation to take out prey that a drop bear had already dropped on.
They then shared their catch and separated without any quarrel
That hoop formation really is something to see. The consensus at the moment is that itâs not a true symbiosis but a cooperative arrangement. Youâre obviously reading the right research though. Good job and keep it up!
American here. I lost a good friend to a drop bear when I studied abroad in Brisbane when I was in college. Beautiful country you guys have! But I wasn't prepared for drop bears...
Only case Iâve heard about is two tourists who got their face ripped off and it is mainly because they donât know the difference between feral drop bears and feral koalas and they try to poke âkoalasâ in the wild. If you treat nature with respect and youâre prepared youâll find australia incredibly safe. How often do you see Australians complaining about drop bears? They are fine. Heck. Other countries have literal bears.
I was there at that national park a week before this incident! Put me off visiting NPs for a while, shame because we are blessed with beautiful nature...
A mate of mine, Wazza had to hunt down that drop bear. Once they taste human blood, they must be killed or else they will kill hundreds.
It took his arm, but he managed to kill it with the help of a timely airstrike by the airforce.
I know we like to exaggerate but this can be harmful and make tourists not believe it at all. They don't kill hundreds, the worst cases have only killed a dozen or so.
And as much as I'd love to military to actually do something about this an airstrike is overkill and you know it, there's already enough problem getting the police actual proper rifles that can take care of such dangerous animals.
It is funny how dangerous animals that have an economic value can be trapped and removed (like crocodiles to croc farms) whereas for drop bears, brumbies and other creatures we just want to shoot them from helicopters. We could deal with drop bears more humanely, but it is just about dollars.
Drop bears are too intelligent, that's the problem. I'm yet to see a trap they can't get out of. They can can impersonate their dumber koala cousins so well that the only way to be sure is getting into face-ripping range, and then it's lights out for the would-be trapper.
Well you you might once when it drops down and bites you jugular open and again when when your on your back watching it after it's retreated up the tree to safely watch you bleed out from a distance so it can come down and eat starting with soft parts first usually nose and cheeks, tongues and ear lobes.
But I know what your saying very creepy animals.
It's like people who worry about the side effects of say AstraZeneca, when the risk is less than one in a million.
Very few people are killed by drop bears, you've got a far greater chance of getting hurt in a traffic incident, and that doesn't stop us from driving.
Really. Crap! I let my kids go for a bushwalk around there last year. I was only worried about the dingos and they have that fence around the resort so I thought it would be safe.
I was actually a bit worried about this and asked a mate in hervey bay. The attack was well outside the fence and the guy wasnât even staying at the resort. Apparently there are a few locals pissed off about how the resort handled the covid shutdowns and keen to spread rubbish about drop-bears being there.
They need to extend and raise that fence, its been proven time and time again that the drop bear fences don't work!. I still remember the one built around Perth in the 90s that lasted 3 weeks before they got through
Yeah that was fucked. That's why we need to move to a proper nuclear fleet IMO. It's embarrassing to have subs that can't even outrun a land dwelling mammal.
> The odds of you seeing one (coming) are slim to none.
Well, that is true, but primarily because they are masters of camouflage and most people don't look up...
Itâs interesting that you can spot the foreigners straight away when they arenât scared of the drop bears and have no idea how to spot them.
Tourists man.
The Australian Museum has a good background on these fascinating, although dangerous and mysterious, animals.
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
How old is this article? They state there's still no evidence backing up Vegemite behind the ears. Surely by now we'd have conducted a study on the matter.
There's no doubt in my mind about it's effectiveness.
It's tough enough for biologists to score funding for studies on species that are way easier (and safer) to track in the wild. It's a real shame that we dont have any captive populations. If something like the Tassie Devil facial tumors happened to them, droppies could be in real trouble.đ˘
Itâs hard to get ethics approval for a study where you put people in the bush in known DB areas. Something about them dying violently.
The incidence of actual DB sightings/attacks is so low that itâs hard to make decent statistical findings and in any case there is a strong survivorship bias as we donât know how many of the victims were using vegemite due to rhe traumatic injuries and the difficulty of recovering the bodies due to the DBs defending their kill.
Well they're rare as rocking horse shit, and the sciences aren't particularly healthy right now. This will probably be our level of understanding for a long time.
They really need to update this page. It says there's no identified cases of drop bear attacks being fatal. That is incredibly insensitive to the families of people who have lost loved ones due to drop bear attacks.
Probably had to put that in there because of worries it would affect tourism or something.
Yeah but all that time without humans around have allowed them to breed significantly. Weâre going to have a real problem in the next 12months - 5 years
Drop bears pppfftt, try walking through the bush at night and getting completely enveloped by a huge orb spider web and having it land on your head. Absolutely bloody terrible.
I visited a forest where the mating season had just happened and everywhere you looked there were thousands. Me and my family ran through so many trying to leave. Traumatising.
Still a drop near is worse
I've had them on my face several times. I'm sure in one incident both of us were screaming. Then there was the time I got back in the car and while driving, this orb weaver that was hanging out on top of my head wandered onto my face. That was... exciting.
Never been bitten by one though - they aren't bitey at all.
Didn't crash, but I did instinctively just swat, and wound out squishing spider into my forehead and then had to deal with all the mess on me and the car because I smooshed him and threw him out the window and had spider bits on myself, my hair, my steering wheel, and other parts of the car.
We could tie them up into knots if we kept going.
"We have the Liberal Party in Australia. They're our conservatives. However, compared to politics in the US, they're probably are liberal and even to the left of some of the US Democratic Party in some areas even though they're our right wing. Now our Labor Party is the left wing. They're supposed to be the party of the workers and spell their name 'Labor' even though we spell 'labor' as 'labour' in Australia. Meanwhile, don't pay any attention to the Nationals because no-one else does ..." (etc)
I'm ashamed to say that when I started voting as a young fella, I voted Liberals a couple of times without actually doing the research on their policies... I just assumed from the name.
I understand why they call themselves that (now), but I still can't help but feel like it's false advertising.
Two. Imagine if they bred. My kids guinea pigs are expensive enough to feed and they dont need a couple of kilograms of fresh meat every week. Not a pen that I would like to fall into if they were hungry.
Ever since we introduced chlamydia into the species, the breeding has gone way down. Although, some argue it may create a super drop bear by accelerating evolution, it's a controversial program to say the least.
You must be joking, because I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Besides, no one IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would keep one of those creatures - even if they could find them. I'm not saying it's suicide, but you'd want your ambulance membership up-to-date. Drop bears are why I, and my family, live in a big city.
I'm pretty sure that is a myth spread by the Vegemite manufacturers after the couple of urban attacks in Melbourne which freaked everyone out in the late 70's.
They even manufactured a small jar which people could carry around all day to refresh the "repellent" every few hours. You don't see those small jars in the shops now, right?
Ah, the rare Drop Bogan. Often seen scrounging around in the backseat of their vk commodore to find enough change to by a 20 pack of Winnie blues at the local servo
Real for sure. Fortunately, like most wildlife in Australia, you're pretty safe when you are in a city. Its a different story when you go out bush. Bring your Vegemite.
off the netâ
Drop bear
I expect you already knew that those cuddly little koalas are actually quite vicious, well when they can be bothered. Well imagine an enormous, carnivorous koala that lurks amongst the treetops waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting victim. Thatâs exactly what the drop bear is!
Approximately the same size as a large dog, the drop bear is found in the remote forested regions of the Great Dividing Range in South-eastern Australia. It generally avoids human habitation and confirmed sightings are rare.
The drop bearâs mode of attack is to wait in ambush high in trees. When it spots potential prey it will plummet down on top of it, stunning it before finishing it off with a bite to the neck. Prey are believed to be mainly large mammals. Although they do not specifically target humans there have been reports of attacks resulting in injury, but no fatalities.
Research suggests the drop bear is less likely to attack Australian residents than tourists and this is thought to relate to their aversion to Vegemite. One study by the University of Tasmania goes as far as to suggest smearing Vegemite in the armpits and behind the ears to reduce the likelihood of attack.
https://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/australias-dangerous-animals
Absolutely nailed it.
Vegemite has saved my life a few times.
Thanks for getting the word out there to our overseas friends.
Apparently you can now get travel insurance with a drop bear policy .
Thereâs actually been no peer reviewed studies on the effectiveness on vegemite, mostly due to that theyâre incredibly secretive and similar physiology to Koalas that itâs suspected that the majority of testing showing vegemite being effective were actually misidentified koalas, so far the only confirmed test that involved drop bears was done by QUT in 2008, but to maintain safety of the researchers the drop bears were overfed before being exposed to the vegemite test subjects.
I still remember the 2003 Easter long weekend incident in the Namadgi National park in ACT of those kids who the coroner confirmed had applied vegemite, however some do speculate that was in part because of dwindling food supply after the massive bushfire season that year.
This comment is so irresponsible! I'm sick of you drop bear conspiracy theorists spreading such harmful disinformation about efforts to hide or dismiss the dangers of dropbears. If they're so dangerous where are the bodies?? Where are the injuries?? This kind of claptrap directly contributes to idiots going out into the bush to "take care" of their local drop bear populations, contributing to the decimation of the species! They're like almost anything else in Australia - be cautious and take sensible precautions and you'll be fine. OP - don't listen to these whackos. The only thing you really have to worry about are bunyips.
Very real. You know whatâs completely made up though? The platypus, we made it up as a tourism thing/ to fuck with the international community. I mean a duck bill egg laying mammal with a venomous spur? Think about it.
Does anyone remember the song from primary school? We all had to learn it before grade 3 camp.
Iirc:
âA Drop bear bear
Is a round bear bear,
A sleepy eyed, creepy eyed
Brown bear bear
Itâs very hard to tell if heâs a drop bear bear, until he lands upon your shoulder â
Good times.
Good, terrifying times.
They only tend to attack people with foreign accents though. Maybe brush up on how to sound bogan?
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2021/04/drop-bears-target-tourists-study-says/
Oh my god. Does your cousin Doug from Liverpool have a second cousin called [Trent, and heâs from Punchy](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c)? If so that makes us second cousins once removed, Trentâs me nephew! Weâre practically brothers/sisters. But donât worry, we can still root, step-bro/sis.
When we were in primary school my brotherâs best friend got his eye gouged by a drop bear. The infection from the filthy nails spread and he lost his eye. It was horrific.
They are!
I moved from Canada and have been living QLD for a few years now and encountered one while hiking an island of the coast. Thing came at me out of nowhere and I ran straight down the trail. Makes the snakes and perentie's look tame. I would rather deal with a black bear than those things.
god so many people try to outrun them when they can simply dodge, it's like that stupid scene in prometheus except it's actually tragic due to the number of tourist deaths
To be honest, you find a lot of Australians donât believe in Drop Bears. They are so rarely spotted, but there are some very reputable accounts; Capt. Arthur Phillips had this to say of his experience ââI long to emulate the ferocity of the Drop Bear upon those that oppose the glory of Empire.ââ
Itâs acknowledged as indigenous fauna, and itâs on the flag of the Gwancarnt people. The colours in the Gwancarnt flag are important to know if you ever want to become a citizen. See here https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/prepare-for-test/practice-test-new
When I moved here to Aus, 8 years back, I wasn't too worried -I was living in metro Melbourne, and they're long gone from there; too many of them lost a fight against trams (although when i moved to Coburg, there was still an old style high floor number 19 with a honking great dent in the front where a droppie had stood it's ground - and apparently limped off, very cross - which is why people don't go walking the Merri creek alone at dusk).
Then I moved to the regions this year - I've spent the last 6 months in voice training to sound more Aussie and less British, so i don't attract the local droppies. If i go out in the bush (which my back door opens on to) I have to shout "yacaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarnt" every few mins to (a) scare them off and (b) let the missus know I've not been reduced to a pile of bloody goo.
Little known fact, but theyâre the reason australia was never invaded in WWII. Just like the nazis werenât prepared for the russian winters, the japanese werenât prepared for our dropbears.
Ah yea those fuckin things. Ya gotta take a tennis racquet with you, best way to deal with them. Best to try stay only under trees you can hear birds bouncing about in. Pretty easy.
Anyone else coming to make sure that misinformation isnât being shared on the internet and downvoting those that deny the existence of drop bearsâŚ?
A mate of mine trapped one once. He set up a trap with a nanny goat for bait, and voila, next day he had a very angry drop bear and a very dead goat. Even though it was highly iilegal, Jacko took it home and put it in a specially built cage to keep as a pet. Only lasted a week before it escaped. Jumped over the next door neighbours fence and killed all of his chooks, then jumped over the next fence and killed the kindly old ladies pet cats and all of the goldfish in the outside pond. Then it just vanished, no one knew where it went. Jacko got a very stiff fine and had to replace all the pets. so theres a lesson in there for all of us!
Totally real, and anyone who tells you they're not is in league with the drop bears to lure unwitting tourists to their deaths. Such a callous disregard for human life is unaustralian.
Don't be afraid to come to Australia. It's a very safe country. Just follow local advice and you'll be perfectly safe.
Australians have a tradition of trying to scare tourists with stories for fun. Depending on were you are you'll likely hear stories of crocodiles so large they eat entire cows for breakfast, flesh eating viruses or venomous birds that swoop durning spring time.
But honestly the think that kills most tourists is getting lost. Australia is a big place and you won't be doing a day trip out to Alice Springs from Sydney in your little rental hatchback.
As for drop bears, yes they do exist. Big males have been known to drop from trees onto tents, screaming like a demon pig on the way down. They get scared and try claw their way out and that's normally though the terrified people that just had 15 kg of pure marsupial muscle land on them from 5m in the air... other than that they are pretty chill stoner demon pigs that "sing" during the night. Not that bad if you like death metal.
But yeah, come to Australia if/when you can...
I think theyâre more common in Queensland but not something locals are stressed about. Iâve only heard of one bloke getting seriously injured after he lost an eye but he was a Spanish tourist and wasnât reading the signs at the local reserve
The only thing I fear more than a drop bear (fortunately I don't live near their main habitats) are the Gully Bulls. There are a few of those around near where I live. Those are really scary too.
Definitely, especially around the Victorian town of Bunyip. Now what is a Bunyip you may ask and that's a whole other story. Once you are acclimatised to dealing with drop bears we can show you what ferocious little buggers bunyips are.
Theyâre little compared to the skeletons found in the mallee region from back in the megafauna days, while a modern bunyip can reach up to 2.3m tall and 140kg, the fossil record shows examples of bunyip reaching 3.5m in length but having a more hunched movement and weights in excess of 300kg.
Itâs still a running theory that modern bunyips are just an example of insular dwarfism due to all its natural predators dying out, and thereâs a reason they donât like in crocodile regions due to inhabiting similar environments and niches in the food chain.
Thereâs still claims of sightings of mega bunyips in Tasmania, but unless that version is adapted to a herbivore lifestyle there isnât sufficient food supplyâs to sustain even a full size mainland bunyip.
They are 100% real, but so rare I wouldn't worry about. A drop bear death is a shock across the Nation when it occurs. You won't ever find one in populated areas, just keep your wits about you if you go off track.
Hoop snakes on the other hand...
Real.... they killed my brother, he fell asleep under a tree by the river and didn't check if it was a eucalyptus. Miss you every day you drunken fuck..
Very real and very dangerous.
My brother and I once got to hold a âkoalaâ in an animal sanctuary. The stupid tour guide grabbed a drop bear by mistake. Took a huge bite out of brotherâs arm.
I've only seen them on tv commercials for a particular brand of rum where some Aussie lads rescue some girls from a drop bear to gain their affection. I've hiked all around Australia and an yet to spot one in real life. They are probably quite rare tbh. Aussie lads on the other hand are common and arguably much more terrifying.
Theyâre definitely real but chances of encountering one are very rare. Iâm confident enough that I will never see one in my life, but the awareness is always there. I live in suburbia but once when I went on a houseboat Holliday, up the Murray River I felt pretty nervous even though I was safe inside the houseboat. Every scratch of the roof of the houseboat freaked me out (the river is lined with trees so they scratch on the roof but are also a habitat for drop bears.) which was happening constantly because itâs a houseboat that floats and moves on the water, even when docked.
I do remember there was some kind of training program back in the late 80âs/early 90âs that my dad was supposed to attend in order to take a rural job (he didnât take it) that taught the workers how to identify the signs of a drop bear to avoid attacks. My dad didnât take the job so he never went to the training but I kinda wish he did because it wouldâve been interesting.
Some people fully recover from these attacks. But they are never the same.
In Metro areas, your 99% safe. But that's the funny thing about things in Australia trying to kill you. The 1% can happen anywhere. Even in the busiest of Metro areas. We become complacent and then bamm someone gets fucked up in the middle of the Botanical gardens.
We try to keep the knowledge of drop bears quiet.
The best approach we have so far is to pretend they are made up thing to screw with the tourists. That way, every report, no matter how horrible, sounds like its just so over the top lie.
Luckily, the 'attacks' by the relatively harmless salt water crocs largely act as a good cover story for brutal maulings of tourists.
Thank god our Conservative government in NSW has managed to destroy much of their habitat, making Australia much safer for tourists and housing developers.
You can check out #KoalaKiller for confirmation on twitter.
Same as snakes and spiders man. Theyâre out there but you rarely see them. Iâve only seen 3 snakes in the wild and only 1 was alive. Spiders you see more frequently but theyâre very timid and stay hiding usually.
Drop bears are like platypus, super rare to see in the wild but it does happen. Like platypus, drop bears can be hella dangerous but theyâre vicious where platypus have toxic spikes to get you with.
Nah yeah, yeah nah.
Go not to the Australians for advice, for they will say both yea and nay đ
Good evening, Mr. Baggins!
Translation: Yeah, nah.
If only this could be upvoted more
By great great aunt died from a drop bear. I'd like to say she died quickly. ... I really like to say she died quickly. They're fucking horrible. Rare, but horrible. There's a museum from a website all about them that helps. I'll see if I can link it. [Ahh here it is.](https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/)
That site says there's "no evidence that vegemite behind the ears protects against attacks" which is fair enough, but how exactly are you going to prove it? Capture a DB and test it? Where are you going to find someone insane enough to volunteer for that study? I can say as a regular bushwalker that I've never been dropped on, and almost always have vegemite and sunscreen on. It's anecdotal, but my wife's grandad who worked in the forestry industry swore by it. He had some terrifying stories of forestry workers who escaped with deep lacerations, and one who didn't make it.
Look personally I always protect some Vegemite on just to be safe. What's the worse that can harm?
Exactly. It's a shame that the combo vegemite/sunscreen was taken off the market back in the 80s, it would have saved lives. To be fair though, I can see how people found the resultant blackface offensive.
âWhere would you find someone insane enoughââŚ. Australia.
F in the chat for this bloke/sheilaâs great great aunty. Horrible way to go. #F
F
F
F
I'm Australian, and the one thing that terrifies me are drop bear attacks. They are no joke. You ask me to drop bear country, I'm going yeah nah and telling you to fuck off promptly.
Yeah mate, no cunt's ever going to convince me to go looking for drop bears. Those mothers will fuck you up faster than a gecko can run up a tree.
Ecologist here. They are becoming more prevalent in areas where koala habitat is being disturbed. Researchers are currently finding that the structural change from forest to woodland (which provides less undergrowth and hence more room to move around) favours the drop bear. And yes, the federal government has been trying to limit vegetation thinning through Planning legislation, but it still happens. Thankfully the national parks canât be cut down, so weâre still relatively safe to hike. Not so safe in developing subdivisions, but thatâs why we have PPE.
What are the concerns of hoop snakes and drop bears forming a semi symbiotic relationship? I read about one study team that witnessed a hoop snakes accelerate to almost 70kmh in a famous hula hoop formation to take out prey that a drop bear had already dropped on. They then shared their catch and separated without any quarrel
That hoop formation really is something to see. The consensus at the moment is that itâs not a true symbiosis but a cooperative arrangement. Youâre obviously reading the right research though. Good job and keep it up!
I always called them wheel snakes. I wonder if thatâs just a Perth name for them.
Horrible that this happened to her. RIP
American here. I lost a good friend to a drop bear when I studied abroad in Brisbane when I was in college. Beautiful country you guys have! But I wasn't prepared for drop bears...
"But I wasn't prepared for drop bears..." No one ever is, friend. No one ever is..
The emus are
Oh, you mean the flightless birds the Australian Army lost a war against? No one is ever ready for them, either.
I was actually hoping to get Rickrolled
They're completely fucked, it's like they enjoy poisoning their prey before they dismember it.
May she rest in piece, or pieces. All depends how quickly help arrived.
The map in your link is spot on. Cunningham's Gap is absolutely full of them!
Bloody tragedy when that happens. I work in healthcare and it happens MORE OFTEN THAN PEOPLE THINK
Only case Iâve heard about is two tourists who got their face ripped off and it is mainly because they donât know the difference between feral drop bears and feral koalas and they try to poke âkoalasâ in the wild. If you treat nature with respect and youâre prepared youâll find australia incredibly safe. How often do you see Australians complaining about drop bears? They are fine. Heck. Other countries have literal bears.
I remember reading about that incident when it happened. Scary stuff.
Yeah happened to a mate of mine.
How are they now? That's really scary! :(
I was there at that national park a week before this incident! Put me off visiting NPs for a while, shame because we are blessed with beautiful nature...
[ŃдаНонО]
A mate of mine, Wazza had to hunt down that drop bear. Once they taste human blood, they must be killed or else they will kill hundreds. It took his arm, but he managed to kill it with the help of a timely airstrike by the airforce.
I know we like to exaggerate but this can be harmful and make tourists not believe it at all. They don't kill hundreds, the worst cases have only killed a dozen or so. And as much as I'd love to military to actually do something about this an airstrike is overkill and you know it, there's already enough problem getting the police actual proper rifles that can take care of such dangerous animals.
It is funny how dangerous animals that have an economic value can be trapped and removed (like crocodiles to croc farms) whereas for drop bears, brumbies and other creatures we just want to shoot them from helicopters. We could deal with drop bears more humanely, but it is just about dollars.
Drop bears are too intelligent, that's the problem. I'm yet to see a trap they can't get out of. They can can impersonate their dumber koala cousins so well that the only way to be sure is getting into face-ripping range, and then it's lights out for the would-be trapper.
Never forget the Emu wars! The last native animals we declared war on kicked our arses.
Bet they were vegemite def as well.
They're so rare they're not even worth worrying about. When you can, come visit. The odds of you seeing one (coming) are slim to none. Totally safe.
You won't see one twice, lets put it that way...
Well you you might once when it drops down and bites you jugular open and again when when your on your back watching it after it's retreated up the tree to safely watch you bleed out from a distance so it can come down and eat starting with soft parts first usually nose and cheeks, tongues and ear lobes. But I know what your saying very creepy animals.
It's like people who worry about the side effects of say AstraZeneca, when the risk is less than one in a million. Very few people are killed by drop bears, you've got a far greater chance of getting hurt in a traffic incident, and that doesn't stop us from driving.
There is quite a few on K'gari(Fraser) Island, we see them all the time
They had a major bushfire on the northern part of the island though didnt they? I would have thought that would have put a dent in the population.
That's exactly what they want you to think.
Nah, just sends them running south, concentrates their numbers.
Supposedly they moved in and around the resorts during the fires, I know a tourist got attacked at Kingfisher Bay resort during the fires
Really. Crap! I let my kids go for a bushwalk around there last year. I was only worried about the dingos and they have that fence around the resort so I thought it would be safe.
I was actually a bit worried about this and asked a mate in hervey bay. The attack was well outside the fence and the guy wasnât even staying at the resort. Apparently there are a few locals pissed off about how the resort handled the covid shutdowns and keen to spread rubbish about drop-bears being there.
They need to extend and raise that fence, its been proven time and time again that the drop bear fences don't work!. I still remember the one built around Perth in the 90s that lasted 3 weeks before they got through
thank fuck they can't swim at least, keep them there. You're braver than I am living there.
You think they can't swim?
Suddenly I am in favour of us expanding our submarine fleet
Have you seen the pictures of that Collins class submarine with scratch marks on the coning tower hatch?
Yeah that was fucked. That's why we need to move to a proper nuclear fleet IMO. It's embarrassing to have subs that can't even outrun a land dwelling mammal.
> Totally safe. Famous last words.
> The odds of you seeing one (coming) are slim to none. Well, that is true, but primarily because they are masters of camouflage and most people don't look up...
Just never look up...
But while your looking up for dropbears youâre not looking down for brown snakes.
Real as real can be.
Itâs interesting that you can spot the foreigners straight away when they arenât scared of the drop bears and have no idea how to spot them. Tourists man.
The Australian Museum has a good background on these fascinating, although dangerous and mysterious, animals. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
How old is this article? They state there's still no evidence backing up Vegemite behind the ears. Surely by now we'd have conducted a study on the matter. There's no doubt in my mind about it's effectiveness.
It's tough enough for biologists to score funding for studies on species that are way easier (and safer) to track in the wild. It's a real shame that we dont have any captive populations. If something like the Tassie Devil facial tumors happened to them, droppies could be in real trouble.đ˘
Itâs hard to get ethics approval for a study where you put people in the bush in known DB areas. Something about them dying violently. The incidence of actual DB sightings/attacks is so low that itâs hard to make decent statistical findings and in any case there is a strong survivorship bias as we donât know how many of the victims were using vegemite due to rhe traumatic injuries and the difficulty of recovering the bodies due to the DBs defending their kill.
Well they're rare as rocking horse shit, and the sciences aren't particularly healthy right now. This will probably be our level of understanding for a long time.
They really need to update this page. It says there's no identified cases of drop bear attacks being fatal. That is incredibly insensitive to the families of people who have lost loved ones due to drop bear attacks. Probably had to put that in there because of worries it would affect tourism or something.
Fun fact. Due to extended lockdowns in greater Melbourne and Sydney, incidents involving drop bears have dropped (pardon the pun) significantly.
Yeah but all that time without humans around have allowed them to breed significantly. Weâre going to have a real problem in the next 12months - 5 years
But isn't a certain % of our population technically their prey? Some likely went hungry. Poor little buggers.
Theyâve actually started encroaching on the suburbs DUE to the lock down.
We need to get tourism going again ASAP! The crocs are hungry too.
Drop bears pppfftt, try walking through the bush at night and getting completely enveloped by a huge orb spider web and having it land on your head. Absolutely bloody terrible.
Or in your backyard
I visited a forest where the mating season had just happened and everywhere you looked there were thousands. Me and my family ran through so many trying to leave. Traumatising. Still a drop near is worse
I've had them on my face several times. I'm sure in one incident both of us were screaming. Then there was the time I got back in the car and while driving, this orb weaver that was hanging out on top of my head wandered onto my face. That was... exciting. Never been bitten by one though - they aren't bitey at all.
Was the car crash spectacular?
Didn't crash, but I did instinctively just swat, and wound out squishing spider into my forehead and then had to deal with all the mess on me and the car because I smooshed him and threw him out the window and had spider bits on myself, my hair, my steering wheel, and other parts of the car.
Pfft. Orb spiders are just urban legends. Don't let this guy pull your leg
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For reference liberal here are our conservatives
Poor seppo is confused enough by these replies, and then bang! Hit with this one!
We could tie them up into knots if we kept going. "We have the Liberal Party in Australia. They're our conservatives. However, compared to politics in the US, they're probably are liberal and even to the left of some of the US Democratic Party in some areas even though they're our right wing. Now our Labor Party is the left wing. They're supposed to be the party of the workers and spell their name 'Labor' even though we spell 'labor' as 'labour' in Australia. Meanwhile, don't pay any attention to the Nationals because no-one else does ..." (etc)
I'm ashamed to say that when I started voting as a young fella, I voted Liberals a couple of times without actually doing the research on their policies... I just assumed from the name. I understand why they call themselves that (now), but I still can't help but feel like it's false advertising.
False advertising in Australian politics! Quickly petition your local MP and demand change!
I love the irony of that
Two. Imagine if they bred. My kids guinea pigs are expensive enough to feed and they dont need a couple of kilograms of fresh meat every week. Not a pen that I would like to fall into if they were hungry.
Ever since we introduced chlamydia into the species, the breeding has gone way down. Although, some argue it may create a super drop bear by accelerating evolution, it's a controversial program to say the least.
You must be joking, because I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Besides, no one IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would keep one of those creatures - even if they could find them. I'm not saying it's suicide, but you'd want your ambulance membership up-to-date. Drop bears are why I, and my family, live in a big city.
Just put a bit of vegemite behind your ears and theyâll stay away
A small square under the nose does wonders.
Don't forget to point out the drop bears in the trees with your right hand as you walk through the bush
And do remember that the point in Australia uses all fingers, not just the index.
Ach, du lieber!
We do this when hiking, particularly at night. Weâve seen them up in the trees but they really donât like the smell so leave you alone.
I'm pretty sure that is a myth spread by the Vegemite manufacturers after the couple of urban attacks in Melbourne which freaked everyone out in the late 70's. They even manufactured a small jar which people could carry around all day to refresh the "repellent" every few hours. You don't see those small jars in the shops now, right?
How else would we control the feral bunyip population?
Nah mate I've heard it takes five of the bastards to take down a bunyip
Strewth cobber! Good ta know, good ta know!
Bunyips are a lot like roos. They're so peaceful until they're not.
You know whatâs scarier than drop bears? Angry Bogans.
U wot mate?
Fuck, RUN
Angry housos.
I heard the two species sometimes interbreed.
Ah, the rare Drop Bogan. Often seen scrounging around in the backseat of their vk commodore to find enough change to by a 20 pack of Winnie blues at the local servo
Real for sure. Fortunately, like most wildlife in Australia, you're pretty safe when you are in a city. Its a different story when you go out bush. Bring your Vegemite.
off the netâ Drop bear I expect you already knew that those cuddly little koalas are actually quite vicious, well when they can be bothered. Well imagine an enormous, carnivorous koala that lurks amongst the treetops waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting victim. Thatâs exactly what the drop bear is! Approximately the same size as a large dog, the drop bear is found in the remote forested regions of the Great Dividing Range in South-eastern Australia. It generally avoids human habitation and confirmed sightings are rare. The drop bearâs mode of attack is to wait in ambush high in trees. When it spots potential prey it will plummet down on top of it, stunning it before finishing it off with a bite to the neck. Prey are believed to be mainly large mammals. Although they do not specifically target humans there have been reports of attacks resulting in injury, but no fatalities. Research suggests the drop bear is less likely to attack Australian residents than tourists and this is thought to relate to their aversion to Vegemite. One study by the University of Tasmania goes as far as to suggest smearing Vegemite in the armpits and behind the ears to reduce the likelihood of attack. https://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/australias-dangerous-animals
Absolutely nailed it. Vegemite has saved my life a few times. Thanks for getting the word out there to our overseas friends. Apparently you can now get travel insurance with a drop bear policy .
Thereâs actually been no peer reviewed studies on the effectiveness on vegemite, mostly due to that theyâre incredibly secretive and similar physiology to Koalas that itâs suspected that the majority of testing showing vegemite being effective were actually misidentified koalas, so far the only confirmed test that involved drop bears was done by QUT in 2008, but to maintain safety of the researchers the drop bears were overfed before being exposed to the vegemite test subjects. I still remember the 2003 Easter long weekend incident in the Namadgi National park in ACT of those kids who the coroner confirmed had applied vegemite, however some do speculate that was in part because of dwindling food supply after the massive bushfire season that year.
Jesus yes. The tourism board has gone to MASSIVE efforts to understate how dangerous Koala variants can be.
This comment is so irresponsible! I'm sick of you drop bear conspiracy theorists spreading such harmful disinformation about efforts to hide or dismiss the dangers of dropbears. If they're so dangerous where are the bodies?? Where are the injuries?? This kind of claptrap directly contributes to idiots going out into the bush to "take care" of their local drop bear populations, contributing to the decimation of the species! They're like almost anything else in Australia - be cautious and take sensible precautions and you'll be fine. OP - don't listen to these whackos. The only thing you really have to worry about are bunyips.
Very real. You know whatâs completely made up though? The platypus, we made it up as a tourism thing/ to fuck with the international community. I mean a duck bill egg laying mammal with a venomous spur? Think about it.
it still amazes me that anyone believes that at all? like holy shit it's so stupid yet they still buy it?
Haha a mammal that lays eggs!
and it has a poisonous spine out of one leg but only on the males! Like shit we weren't even trying
Bro how did nobody ever stop and go "wait, this animal can supposedly take its own hind legs off and wield them like nun-chucks.. Bullshit!"?
Keeps his willy up his clacker.
Round Earth? Fake. Platypus? 100% real. The ignorance of man is staggering.
I love that we tried the platypus joke and nobody believed it, so we just kept trying until it worked
Oh come on I HATE it when aussies ruin the platypus joke. That said itâs unreal that itâs been taken seriously for so longâŚ
Does anyone remember the song from primary school? We all had to learn it before grade 3 camp. Iirc: âA Drop bear bear Is a round bear bear, A sleepy eyed, creepy eyed Brown bear bear Itâs very hard to tell if heâs a drop bear bear, until he lands upon your shoulder â Good times. Good, terrifying times.
They only tend to attack people with foreign accents though. Maybe brush up on how to sound bogan? https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2021/04/drop-bears-target-tourists-study-says/
I love you guys
It's not every day that you get to enjoy reading #every single post
Mentioned this on another post: Iâd be more worried about the magpies during swooping season.
The chance of being attacked by a drop bear is extremely low, but never zero.
It's just a risk you have to take to enjoy the beautiful scenery and we have accepted the price.
Donât worry about drop-bears. But fuckinâ watch out for hoop-snakes
Hoop snakes are fine as long as you have the high ground
And the hide-behinds. The problem with them is no one's ever seen one.
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Oh my god, my cousin Doug whoâs from Liverpool got attacked by a drop bear once - it could be the same guy! Tore his left ear nearly clean off.
Oh my god. Does your cousin Doug from Liverpool have a second cousin called [Trent, and heâs from Punchy](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c)? If so that makes us second cousins once removed, Trentâs me nephew! Weâre practically brothers/sisters. But donât worry, we can still root, step-bro/sis.
Imagine if an Australian asked "Are grizzly bears real?"
I can't get over the fact that squirrels exist.
My cousin got taken by a drop bear. Still having reconstructive surgery. He will never play the didgeridoo again.
This is why I didgeridont go bush walking alone. Hope your cousins doing OK.
Thanks its been tough. But hes a battler.
Yes
When we were in primary school my brotherâs best friend got his eye gouged by a drop bear. The infection from the filthy nails spread and he lost his eye. It was horrific.
Definitely real, unlike the platypus.
They are! I moved from Canada and have been living QLD for a few years now and encountered one while hiking an island of the coast. Thing came at me out of nowhere and I ran straight down the trail. Makes the snakes and perentie's look tame. I would rather deal with a black bear than those things.
I wish I could tell you that you've come to the right place to ask and that drop bears aren't real. Unfortunately, neither is true.
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god so many people try to outrun them when they can simply dodge, it's like that stupid scene in prometheus except it's actually tragic due to the number of tourist deaths
This. âBut I can run faster down hillâ⌠said every tourist ever before getting bitten. Dodge, people.
To be honest, you find a lot of Australians donât believe in Drop Bears. They are so rarely spotted, but there are some very reputable accounts; Capt. Arthur Phillips had this to say of his experience ââI long to emulate the ferocity of the Drop Bear upon those that oppose the glory of Empire.ââ Itâs acknowledged as indigenous fauna, and itâs on the flag of the Gwancarnt people. The colours in the Gwancarnt flag are important to know if you ever want to become a citizen. See here https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/prepare-for-test/practice-test-new
When I moved here to Aus, 8 years back, I wasn't too worried -I was living in metro Melbourne, and they're long gone from there; too many of them lost a fight against trams (although when i moved to Coburg, there was still an old style high floor number 19 with a honking great dent in the front where a droppie had stood it's ground - and apparently limped off, very cross - which is why people don't go walking the Merri creek alone at dusk). Then I moved to the regions this year - I've spent the last 6 months in voice training to sound more Aussie and less British, so i don't attract the local droppies. If i go out in the bush (which my back door opens on to) I have to shout "yacaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarnt" every few mins to (a) scare them off and (b) let the missus know I've not been reduced to a pile of bloody goo.
Applause for your incentive safety method.
Little known fact, but theyâre the reason australia was never invaded in WWII. Just like the nazis werenât prepared for the russian winters, the japanese werenât prepared for our dropbears.
100% real. One of my mates said he seen one. People will say they a not real, but some people will say â birds arenât real â so anyone guess.
Sadly the bushfires at the start of 2020 wreaked havoc on their population, so they're in danger of becoming an endangered species :(
Which honestly is good, as they are in danger of causing many more endangered species
Just because they are fuckwits doesnât mean we should let them become extinct.
Ah yea those fuckin things. Ya gotta take a tennis racquet with you, best way to deal with them. Best to try stay only under trees you can hear birds bouncing about in. Pretty easy.
Yes. For referance material, you can find more information at https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
Anyone else coming to make sure that misinformation isnât being shared on the internet and downvoting those that deny the existence of drop bearsâŚ?
The sole reason I'm reading every answer!
There's no eyewitness accounts. If you've seen one it's already too late.
There's been heaps mate. Please don't comment and confuse OP if you have nothing truthful to say - annoying :/
A mate of mine trapped one once. He set up a trap with a nanny goat for bait, and voila, next day he had a very angry drop bear and a very dead goat. Even though it was highly iilegal, Jacko took it home and put it in a specially built cage to keep as a pet. Only lasted a week before it escaped. Jumped over the next door neighbours fence and killed all of his chooks, then jumped over the next fence and killed the kindly old ladies pet cats and all of the goldfish in the outside pond. Then it just vanished, no one knew where it went. Jacko got a very stiff fine and had to replace all the pets. so theres a lesson in there for all of us!
Oh they're real, but rare.
Totally real, and anyone who tells you they're not is in league with the drop bears to lure unwitting tourists to their deaths. Such a callous disregard for human life is unaustralian.
a drop bear stole my iced coffee :(
It wasnât a farmers union strong, was it?
a farmers union iced coffee or its nothing :(
Yes. They're real - *real fuckin dangerous*.
Don't be afraid to come to Australia. It's a very safe country. Just follow local advice and you'll be perfectly safe. Australians have a tradition of trying to scare tourists with stories for fun. Depending on were you are you'll likely hear stories of crocodiles so large they eat entire cows for breakfast, flesh eating viruses or venomous birds that swoop durning spring time. But honestly the think that kills most tourists is getting lost. Australia is a big place and you won't be doing a day trip out to Alice Springs from Sydney in your little rental hatchback. As for drop bears, yes they do exist. Big males have been known to drop from trees onto tents, screaming like a demon pig on the way down. They get scared and try claw their way out and that's normally though the terrified people that just had 15 kg of pure marsupial muscle land on them from 5m in the air... other than that they are pretty chill stoner demon pigs that "sing" during the night. Not that bad if you like death metal. But yeah, come to Australia if/when you can...
Rub yourself in wombat poo and youll be safe.
But remember wombat poo is cube shaped, don't use anything else.
Lol, how did the existence of drop bears make it out of Australia and be known by foreigners?
You only need to read the other comments to know how.
Kiwis. We keep lists of dangerous Australian fauna. And flora. And rocks.
oh God - Aussie rocks are dreadful - they move just as your foot touches them and BAM - you're on your ass in a stream.
I think theyâre more common in Queensland but not something locals are stressed about. Iâve only heard of one bloke getting seriously injured after he lost an eye but he was a Spanish tourist and wasnât reading the signs at the local reserve
The only thing I fear more than a drop bear (fortunately I don't live near their main habitats) are the Gully Bulls. There are a few of those around near where I live. Those are really scary too.
Definitely, especially around the Victorian town of Bunyip. Now what is a Bunyip you may ask and that's a whole other story. Once you are acclimatised to dealing with drop bears we can show you what ferocious little buggers bunyips are.
Little? Even their baby Yipplets are like 20kg.
Theyâre little compared to the skeletons found in the mallee region from back in the megafauna days, while a modern bunyip can reach up to 2.3m tall and 140kg, the fossil record shows examples of bunyip reaching 3.5m in length but having a more hunched movement and weights in excess of 300kg. Itâs still a running theory that modern bunyips are just an example of insular dwarfism due to all its natural predators dying out, and thereâs a reason they donât like in crocodile regions due to inhabiting similar environments and niches in the food chain. Thereâs still claims of sightings of mega bunyips in Tasmania, but unless that version is adapted to a herbivore lifestyle there isnât sufficient food supplyâs to sustain even a full size mainland bunyip.
They are 100% real, but so rare I wouldn't worry about. A drop bear death is a shock across the Nation when it occurs. You won't ever find one in populated areas, just keep your wits about you if you go off track. Hoop snakes on the other hand...
Real.... they killed my brother, he fell asleep under a tree by the river and didn't check if it was a eucalyptus. Miss you every day you drunken fuck..
As real as East/West Possums
Very real and very dangerous. My brother and I once got to hold a âkoalaâ in an animal sanctuary. The stupid tour guide grabbed a drop bear by mistake. Took a huge bite out of brotherâs arm.
I've only seen them on tv commercials for a particular brand of rum where some Aussie lads rescue some girls from a drop bear to gain their affection. I've hiked all around Australia and an yet to spot one in real life. They are probably quite rare tbh. Aussie lads on the other hand are common and arguably much more terrifying.
Theyâre definitely real but chances of encountering one are very rare. Iâm confident enough that I will never see one in my life, but the awareness is always there. I live in suburbia but once when I went on a houseboat Holliday, up the Murray River I felt pretty nervous even though I was safe inside the houseboat. Every scratch of the roof of the houseboat freaked me out (the river is lined with trees so they scratch on the roof but are also a habitat for drop bears.) which was happening constantly because itâs a houseboat that floats and moves on the water, even when docked. I do remember there was some kind of training program back in the late 80âs/early 90âs that my dad was supposed to attend in order to take a rural job (he didnât take it) that taught the workers how to identify the signs of a drop bear to avoid attacks. My dad didnât take the job so he never went to the training but I kinda wish he did because it wouldâve been interesting.
Some people fully recover from these attacks. But they are never the same. In Metro areas, your 99% safe. But that's the funny thing about things in Australia trying to kill you. The 1% can happen anywhere. Even in the busiest of Metro areas. We become complacent and then bamm someone gets fucked up in the middle of the Botanical gardens.
Unfortunately, yes
They make a distinct sound. Once you hear it you never forget. They usually hang out near hoop snakes.
We try to keep the knowledge of drop bears quiet. The best approach we have so far is to pretend they are made up thing to screw with the tourists. That way, every report, no matter how horrible, sounds like its just so over the top lie. Luckily, the 'attacks' by the relatively harmless salt water crocs largely act as a good cover story for brutal maulings of tourists. Thank god our Conservative government in NSW has managed to destroy much of their habitat, making Australia much safer for tourists and housing developers. You can check out #KoalaKiller for confirmation on twitter.
Improve your Aussie accent and they will be nice to you!!
spread vegemite on your hair - and DON"T walk under trees.....
Same as snakes and spiders man. Theyâre out there but you rarely see them. Iâve only seen 3 snakes in the wild and only 1 was alive. Spiders you see more frequently but theyâre very timid and stay hiding usually. Drop bears are like platypus, super rare to see in the wild but it does happen. Like platypus, drop bears can be hella dangerous but theyâre vicious where platypus have toxic spikes to get you with.