DropBears. Here at Clarendon we have had a number of Dropbear attacks. You might notice red tape as you walk around. This is where a dropbear attack has occurred. We have staff here to to take you on walks if you feel a little bit worried, but you will find the Dropbear repellents include Aeroguard.and Vegemite. both work very well. No photo has ever been taken of a dropbear , so it is thought that a camera works as a good repellent to.

While no dropbear has ever been captured, DNA samples taken from victims show they are a step away from the evolution chain of Koalas, Wombats and Quolls ( native tiger cats).

We now have a photo of a dropbear up in the forest Canopy. As the image is not as sharp as we would like we have sent the image away for work by a graphic artist. Dropbear nests have also been photographed

The following quotes have been taken from a number of sites with the links to the source. We have included the links to both acknowledge the writer to the information but to add credibility of the risk of dropbears to Australian visitors. Now some of these links may be dead. The Australian Government finds information about dropbear sites they take down as the government does not want tourists to be afraid of dropbears.

Injuries to drop bear survivor

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/tesseraction/Blogs/2004_02_01_archive.html

As those of you who live around here will be aware, Australian cities are currently in the grip of terror due to a recent outbreak of dropbears. For unknown reasons - possibly due to logging and urban sprawl having reduced their natural bush habitat - more and more dropbears have been sighted in residential suburbs in the last couple of years. Furthermore, a larger than usual number of dropbear attacks on people have been reported in the last six months, and authorities are desperately trying to find out why dropbear activity has increased so significantly of late. It is a disturbing and totally unexpected change in their natural behaviour, as dropbears don't generally hunt in urban areas, and both scientists and authorities have been battling to try to understand why this is happening.

For those readers who may not be familiar with the Aussie dropbear menace, these terrifying creatures, a distant cousin to koalas but much larger (almost the size of an American grizzly) and with sharp claws and fangs, generally hide in trees during the day, sleeping on the upper branches out of sight. But in the evening and throughout the night, they hunt by waiting for an unsuspecting victim to walk under the tree - at which point they drop from the branch (hence the colloquial name "dropbear") and begin savaging their prey with claws and teeth in a frenzy of violence. Once the victim has been mauled to death, the dropbear will then eat its fill and move on to a new tree, leaving the corpse lying there like a sack of red rags. Usually dropbears attack smaller prey such as kangaroos and cattle, but they will also attack a full-grown human with no hesitation. Their size, and the fury of their attack means the chances of surviving a dropbear attack are similar to that of being dropped into a pool of twenty-foot killer sharks.

Since the beginning of colonial recorded history, thousands of Australian deaths have been attributed to dropbear maulings, and no doubt tens - or even hundreds - of thousands of Aborigines perished in the time before that. There have been very few survivors. So it is with obvious concern that authorities have stepped up warnings about the recent dropbear increase in the suburbs. All the usual warnings are important to remember - don't go out at night unless you have to, and if you do, do NOT walk under any trees. Shamefully, the government keeps insisting that we do not mention dropbears in public, to tourists or other non-Australians. Despite the increased danger, they still maintain their greedy conspiracy of threatening us with penalties for disclosing any information that may harm the tourist industry. You can still be fined up to $5,000, or jailed for a period of six months just for warning a tourist about the dropbear menace.

Well, to hell with them! In my opinion, the menace has reached such a deadly state that I am prepared to risk legal punishment and post this warning. To all those foreigners thinking of coming to Australia: DO NOT GO OUT AT NIGHT! BEWARE THE DROPBEARS!

Mike Simanoff: Wow, that’s scary stuff, like the jackalope in America, an unpredictable, wily monster. Keep safe, and thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I look forward to reading more from you in the future!

There has been the occasional fatality caused by a jugular being punctured but usually the victim suffers nothing more than a nasty shock and a couple of scratches.

http://www.purple.dropbear.id.au/curios/dropbear.html
It is well understood that the dropbear has evolved over thousands of years. It's diminutive cousin the Koala was more often found in dryer areas of Australia where it's herbivorous lifestyle was a natural adaptation to scarce food supplies. Conversely, Dropbear prides were more common in sub-tropical forests, where larger mammals (a primary food source) were more prevelant. The population density along coastal areas accounts for the less than comfortable relationship shared over the years by humans and Dropbears. Due to habitat destruction, many Dropbear prides have divided over the years, some of which head further inland in search of more plentiful food sources, and safer environments in which to raise cubs. This in turn has displaced some koala populations. This in fact serves to provide the Australian government with a convenient cover story. They (and others) claim that coastal Koala habitats are being destroyed, thereby lowering the count of koala's typically seen around urban Australia. This is a fallacy, as koala's never inhabited coastal areas in any great numbers due to the Dropbear not being particularly concerned with matters of ettiquette regarding feeding on relatives. However, since many tourists tend to be dissapointed that they do not see a koala in every eucalytpus tree, the government perpetuates this story of an endagered species in a shrinking habitat. As horrible as it is, it sounds a lot better than saying "Oh, those cuddly things? Yeah, the dropbears ate them all".

I have heard it claimed that Vegemite (a black foodstuff, high in vitamin B, manufactured as a joke to play on tourists) is a good Dropbear repellent when applied to the face and neck. I find this very difficult to believe, but cannot in truth disprove it. The fact is that the only true Dropbear repellent is Aeroguard. It is 100% effective, and not a single confirmed dropbear killing has been recorded against a person protected with Aeroguard (not to mention the fact that smearing Vegemite over your body is far less pleasant than a few sprays of Aeroguard). Due to political pressure Aeroguard is marketed as an insect repellent (a task it also performs rather well). We all have our strange marketing laws, and just as in the USA it is illegal to advertise the health benefits of a non-drug product, in Oz it is illegal to market protection products against "Creatures of plausible deniability". Go figure.
The AquaBear

The existance of several species of the Terrestrial Australian Dropbear are well known. However, some reports circulate of a recently evolved genus, the "Aquatic Dropbear". Australia loses a large number of citizens and visitors in our waters, which are well populated with crocodiles, blue-ringed octopi, deadly stonefish, sea snakes, box jellyfish and of course, many species of shark. Not to mention dangerous surf conditions, rip-tides and poorly managed dive trips.

Personally, I do find it difficult to believe that a tree-dwelling mammal could rapidly evolve to the point where it can enter an aquatic environment as a formidable predator.

If there is such a creature, it is much more likely that it is in fact the ancient ancestor of our terrestrial friend we know as the dropbear. Most evolutionary scales hold to the theory that life came from the oceans, with creatures evolving to allow them to function on land, certainly not the other way around. While I personally am not convinced of the existence of an aquatic dropbear, I cannot discount it. I will however point out that the evolutionary process is almost certainly the reverse of what some have claimed.
The Claws

Many texts dealing with dropbear attacks describe the claws as "great talons of amazing strength and size, usually several inches long, are used to tear the flesh from hapless victims".

The claws are NOT used to tear flesh per se. During the early days of colonisation in Australia (where we spell colonisation with an "s"), medical examinations of victims revealed that it is more of a strike, rip action. The claws of the dropbear are indeed long and strong, but they do not have a sharp edge along their length. An evolutionary viewpoint on this may suggest that the claws are smooth along their length in order to avoid scraping on branches while moving through the cover of the forest canopy. Any excess noise, or falling bark from sharp, scratching claws would likely alert any prey on the forest floor to the danger that awaits them from above. Considering that Dropbears will often hunt as a group, this is a reasonable theory - you could imagine the noise created by a pride of 30 dropbears preparing to strike if they had claws that scraped on the branches they crouched upon. Only the tips of their claws are sharp. The dropbear attacks by driving it's claws deep into the neck of a victim, then using a sideways tearing motion as the slightly curved claw is withdrawn. This method usually results in the veins and arteries of the neck being stretched and torn as opposed to sliced, as some texts may suggest.

The shaping of the Dropbear claw has had an interesting effect on Australian architecture, of all things. If you are a visitor to Oz, no doubt you will have noticed the great attraction we seem to have toward a product known as "corrugated iron". This is a steel sheeting, rolled during manufacture to present an undulating surface. It has been in use since the early days of settlement here, the primary reson for which is that it is difficult for dropbear's to penetrate. It is often said that a dropbear's claws can easily tear into a piece of sheetmetal several millimeters thick. However, a dropbear can only do this by first driving the claw into the metal, and then tearing a rift after puncturing it. The continually curving surface of corrugated iron makes it difficult for the claw to initially penetrate the metal (it's like trying to stab a pea with a fork), which is why it has become such a popular building material. Indeed, in areas of high dropbear density (such as national parks, and outback cattle stations), almost all buildings are entirely sheeted with corrugated iron in order to provide protection (or at least, some time) in the event of a dropbear attack.

Often mistaken for Australia's mostly cuddly looking marsupial (the koala), the dropbear is perhaps the most dangerous animal on the planet. This nasty creature relies on it's cuddly looking appearance to attack unsuspecting tourists who attempt to hold it or have their photograph taken with it. Many tourists have been lulled into a false sense of security when the dropbear has pretended to be it's more sleepy and cuddly cousin. If it cannot fool it's victim readily, the dropbear will drop down from the trees to attack with it's large retractable claws and wickedly sharp 12 centimeter fangs.

Drop Bear Attacks!

Have you ever wondered why Australia was one of the last continents to be colonised? It is believed that this is due to the ravages of the dropbears who destroyed the fledgling colonies without a trace. For a long time, there was never any proof that dropbears existed as their attacks were so savage and fast that few people lived to report an attack. With the development of the camera, blurry, out of focus photographs were sometimes managed to be taken by some of the dropbear's victims although it is not uncommon for a dropbear to destroy every belonging during an attack. The photograph to the left is the only known photograph of a dropbear during an attack. The photographer is not believed to have survived the attack as only the bloodied camera and some clothing were found.

Dropbears have a highly developed sense of smell like that of sharks (some of which can smell a drop of blood in water from over a mile away). It has been learned that just the smell of Eucalyptus sends the dropbear into an uncontrollable rage and since just about every native tree in Australia is a Eucalypt, the dropbear is in a permanent state of rage. Never, ever take a bag of Eucalyptus lozenges with you when trekking through the bush, it only attracts the nearest dropbear.

You may notice that many Australians spray a repellant on themselves called Aeroguard. There is no documentary evidence to prove that Aeroguard does in fact repel dropbears however there have been no reported attacks on people who have worn the repellant. A beneficial effect of the dropbear repellant is that it repels insects and this is how it is marketed. During summer you may notice that there are many official government warnings disguised as advertisements where the last thing is said is "Don't forget your Aeroguard."

Think that a dingo really took a baby? Think that one of our prime ministers disappeared while swimming near a beach? Think again, it's only what the Australian authorities want you to believe, the truth being far more terrifying. A rare form of aquatic dropbear is believed responsible for the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt while he was skin diving off a secluded beach. Shark nets have been erected at popular beaches, ostensibly to protect swimmers from sharks but the real reason is to prevent aquatic dropbears from mauling sharks which have become an endangered species since the recent evolution of this creature. It is also to prevent aquatic dropbears from swimming out to boats and somehow managing to make their way to other counstries.

It is no mere coincidence that Australia is one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world with vast unoccupied land populated with Dropbears. And then there is the 'Dingo' fence which is supposed to stop the movement of the dingo (a wild dog found in Australia). Why is the fence over 6 feet high? It's because we know that it is the maximum height a dropbear can jump from a prone position. The real reason for the fence is to limit the movement of populations of dropbears. It is hoped that by limiting their gene pool that they will become inbred and die out as poisoning, shooting etc haven't worked in the past. Even destroying one of their food sources (the rabbit) via the Calcivirus has not had a significant impact on their numbers.

The only thing that has managed to protect the rest of the world from the predations of the dropbear has been the relative isolation of Australia. However, in recent years the Australian government has decided to increase tourism to Australia with particular emphasis on our unique wildlife. There is however, one particular form of wildlife that the government does not want to bring attention to and that is the Dropbear. Australians are regularly warned against mentioning the Dropbear in public and in private and it is an especially taboo subject with foreign guests. Special laws have been enacted that prevent people from talking about the Dropbear and there are undercover police whose job it is to find people who are all too willing to talk about Dropbears. It is only a matter of time before this site is shut down by the authorities, however I will attempt to keep this page going for as long as I can.

Don't even bother trying to ask an Australian about the danger of Dropbears. All they will do is look at you strangely or even nod and wink at other Australians and pretend they don't know what you are talking about. Some may exchange knowing looks and you may even find some faces go pale at the mention of that dreaded animal but no one will admit to knowing what you are talking about.

http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0103D&L=conlang&P=R10054&D=0
Dropbears, for those unfamiliar, look and - for most of the time -
behave just like koalas. This is to be expected, given that they
evoloved from them. They got sick and tired of being called 'koala bears', and so decided to change species. When an unsuspecting (American) tourist walks under a eucalypt that is housing one of these, the drop down onto their shoulder and start sucking the brains* out through their ears. Dropbears are NOT MYTHICAL. Last year, a 'koala' dropped on an old woman
as she was walking into her house. She was fortunate enough not to have been killed by it, but was hospitalised. Bodies of dropbears' victims are not normally found, presumably because they are eaten by bunyips. Sometimes, the people describe dropbears as koala faeces (which are green). DO NOT LET THIS PEOPLE FOOL YOU. They are only there to lull you into a false sense of security. Some even cruler Australians may even tell you the dropbears don't exit. It is these people who also tell you that our clocks go clockwise (the numbers go clockwise just to fool American tourists), that we have electricity, and that we don't ride kangaroos to school/work. These are ALL FALSE (i.e. our clocks go anti-clockwise, we do not have elctiricty, and kangaroos are our main form of transport .

*Webmasters Footnote: Australians are not attacked by dropbears as the brain is so tiny

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3695/db.htm

Drop Bears - The Truth

For those of you who do not know the history of Drop Bears in Australia, I will tell it, so much as I know, as a warning to you and your family.
Origin
In the beginning, there were koalas. Cuddly, furry, slow-moving and sleepy, koalas eat gum leaves for 90% of their waking lives, but prefer to spend most of their time asleep. They live in trees, venturing down to the ground only when it is necessary to move from tree to tree. Koalas are no threat to humans, unless you are foolish enough to climb up a tree and attempt to catch one, under which circumstances the koala may give you a bit of a scratch with its ample claws.
You will be aware that Australia is home to many species that simply don't exist anywhere else in the world. Echidnas, wombats, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots and potoroos are unique to Australia, just to name a few. Another unique animal is the Drop Bear.
Description
The Drop Bear is described as an arboreal, (tree dwelling) carnivorous mammal of Australia, Phascolarctus Bityness, growing to around 4 feet in height. This description is not far wrong. Believed to have evolved from a similar line to koalas, Drop Bears vary from 3 to 5 feet in hight, but are extremely strong. They are covered in a dense fur, which can range from almost black to the Alpine Drop Bear's snowy white coat. They have broad shoulders and razor sharp claws on all four limbs. They are able to walk for short distances on two legs, but are much faster on all four, being capable of bursts of speed approaching 60 km/h at full gallop. Their heads are similar to those of koalas, but with enlarged canine teeth, not unlike those of bears or other carnivorous animals. There are no reported photographs of them, and only a select and very lucky few have laid eyes on them and lived to tell the tale.
As you can imagine, admitting their existence would cause some degree of panic, and destroy parts of Australia's ecotourism industry overnight. It is for this reason that all government departments will, and have denied any knowledge of the existence of the Drop Bear, and are likely to continue to do so in the future. Being an avid outdoor enthusiast, and having contact with people who spend a large proportion of their time outdoors, I have gathered together scraps of information from sources all around the country, linking Drop Bear involvement to such events as the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, the death of Captain James Cook in Hawaii, several war-time incidents in northern Australia, the disappearance of a group of cross-country skiers in the Victorian Alps, and the deaths of a number of hikers, canoeists, 4WDrivers, campers, sunbathers and swimmers throughout the country. These 'accidents' are often reported as crocodile attacks, falls from cliffs, exposure, and in the Chamberlain case, dingoes were blamed. I have it on good authority in all of these cases, however, that a government cover-up was at work to dispel rumours of Drop Bear attacks and hide the truth from the public.
Dangers associated with Drop Bears
Drop Bears are not cuddly and friendly, like their cousin the koala. They are vicious, calculating, cold-blooded killers. Their usual method of attack is to select animals which stray from their group, including humans, dropping down onto them from above. They then proceed to wrap themselves around the body of their prey, squeezing them to death, often crushing the rib cage and breaking the neck. Occasionally when hunting, and when threatened, the Bears will drop down in front of, and then challenge their prey, snarling and flashing their sharp claws and teeth, before ripping their prey to shreds with their powerful arms and legs. Of all the ways to die in the bush, this would have to be the most horrible. Arms and Legs are torn from the body, along with huge slabs of flesh, which are greedily consumed while the victim still lives. If seen, Drop Bears should NOT be approached, as they are easily frightened and likely to attack. Vehicles are known to have been attacked, and being in one is no defence. An adult Drop Bear is able to easily break windows and enter vehicles to extrude would-be meals.
Sub-species
The Common Drop Bear is found in wooded areas all over the Australian continent, including Tasmania, and is thought to in fact venture as far north as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It lives in trees, dropping down to feed on kangaroos, wombats, and anything else that walks beneath it.
The Burrowing Drop Bear is slightly smaller in stature than the common variety, though just as ferocious. It is known to inhabit the drier arid regions of the country, including the deserts of central Australia. It is also fairly common amongst wooded areas, and burrows have been found everywhere from beaches to desert plains. The burrows vary in size according to the individual animal, but the entry hole may be considerably smaller than the actual living space. Holes 30cm in diameter have been known to house Drop Bears 5 feet tall. The animal's extraordinary contorting ability means it is able to crawl through extremely small spaces in search of wombats and rabbits.
The Alpine Drop Bear grows a special winter coat of almost pure white for camouflage in snowy areas. They have been spotted at lower elevations when the food supply is short, but unlike Common and Burrowing varieties, are able to hibernate for sustained periods. They live in larger burrows than Burrowing Drop Bears, being less able to contort through small openings. During the summer months, they remain in their mountain environment, shedding their white coats and adopting darker furs for camouflage in the lightly treed and grassy plains of the high country.
The Aquatic Drop Bear, as its name suggests, feeds in and around bodies of water. Lakes, rivers, dams and the Australian coastal waters are home to this variety of Drop Bear. With webbed feet and an water-resistant coat similar to a seal, they are ideally suited to marine life, though still retain the unmistakable Drop Bear physique of four legs, broad shoulders and sharp claws and teeth. Aquatic Drop Bears have attacked canoeists, rafters, fisherman on the bank and in boats, sunbathers and swimmers. Cases such as these are often falsely reported by the media as crocodile or shark attacks, in an effort to avoid the mass hysteria which would almost definitely result from an admission that we have a Drop Bear problem.
Conclusion
I have endeavoured to provide you, the reader, with as much information as I can at this time. I have been hounded and ridiculed for sharing such information as this with the public, but I am reconciled to do my best to warn as many people as I can of this potential danger in the Australian Bush.
You have been warned.

http://forums.devshed.com/archive/t-203057

Conversation . . . . . . . . .
Keep your eyes on the forest canopy as you wander round; you never know what's just above your head...

'Of course, you've got to be careful of drop bears: they're everywhere at this time of year.'

'Drop bears? What on earth are they?'
'Well, they're these bears that are distantly related to koalas, and they hang around in trees, sleeping most of the time.'

'What's so dangerous about that?'
'Well, when a drop bear gets hungry, he sits there, up in the tree, looking round for something to eat. And he sits and sits and sits, and waits until some unsuspecting animal wanders under his tree and then - wallop! - he drops down on top of 'em. So if you happen to be walking under a tree when a drop bear's looking for a meal, you're in for a nasty shock.'

'Yeah...'
'But the worst thing is the claws. Because they have to climb trees, they've got long, sharp claws for gripping bark, and if a drop bear lands on you, the chances are he's going to rip huge gashes down your back. It's not a pleasant way to go; the loss of blood can be enough to kill you, even if he decides not to eat ya.'

'Really . . . . .
'Yup, and they just love trees in sleepy suburbs, so watch it when you're walking to the pub, eh.'

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