The truth about the ferocious carnivorous bear in Australian legend

Although they look like koalas, drop bears are much more ferocious and scary. They are a nightmare for anyone who wants to go into the forest.

When you go to Australia and ask about the "drop bear" , most Australians will describe an extremely ferocious predator with sharp teeth, similar in appearance to a koala bear. They will tell curious people about victims covered in injuries, or even near death, due to attacks by this vicious carnivore, CNN wrote.

However, you will have to laugh at your fear after knowing that they were just jokes.

Most countries have creatures that are rumored to live but have never been actually seen. We can think of dragons, Yetis, and the Loch Ness Monster. The Leaping Bear is one such creature.

Drop bear - Australia's most ferocious and mysterious fictional creature. (Photo: CNN).

Australian Sense of Humor

Hardly any Australians actually believe in the existence of this creature. Most of them use the legends of the jumping bear simply to scare people, usually foreigners.

A native will tell a foreign tourist to 'watch out for the jumping bear' when they are about to explore a wooded or bushy area. When the tourist asks about the animal, the Australian will describe it as a vicious, clawed carnivorous creature that can jump down on them from the trees at any time.

'People get nervous and look up at the tree,' says Ian Coate, author and founder of the website Mythic Australia. 'It's a funny reaction. That's the Australian sense of humour.'

But there are always those who know how to take the joke about this fictional creature to the next level. For example, the Australian Museum even created a fake news story on its website warning of the dangers of this unreal animal.

'Once it has set its sights on its prey, the drop bear will jump down from a height of 8m and rush at the victim's head. This move will stun the prey, allowing the animal to easily bite the victim's neck and quickly take it down ,' the website writes.

Origin of the legend

Although the legend of the dancing bear is quite famous around the world, its true origin is still little known.

According to the National Library of Australia, the dancing bear was first mentioned innocuously in 1982, in The Canberra Times, an Australian newspaper.

'TAM - Be careful of those dancing bears in the future, remember that, dear Clint,' read a message in the 21st Birthdays section of the paper. It is unclear who or what TAM or Clint is.

Some of the details of the jumping bear legend resurfaced in a film by Australian comedian Paul Hogan, known to the world primarily as 'Crocodile Dundee'. The film was part of his show "The Paul Hogan Show" , which ran in the 1970s and 1980s.

In one scene, Hogan parodies a scene from the Indiana Jones movies, in which a character named Cootamundra Hoges is exploring the Goannas Valley (a fictional location) when he is attacked by killer koalas. The koalas swoop down from a tree and start clawing at Hogan. He falls to the ground, surrounded by the animals.

Photoshopped image shows a bear pouncing on a family walking in the woods. (Photo: Courtesy Mythis Australia).

However, Mr. Coate of Mythic Australia said he had heard about dancing bears from his superiors in the early 1970s, before Hogan went on air.

'When camping, people often talk about jumping bears to prevent campers from straying too far from the campsite ,' he said. Coate added that he was also warned that if he wandered into areas with lots of trees and bushes, he would be attacked by a jumping bear.

It is unclear when drop bears first became the 'boogeymen' that terrified Australian children, especially those in rural areas. Gradually, these stories became the pranks used to scare tourists like today.

However, the first foreigners spooked by the story of the jumping bear were not tourists, Mr. Coate said.

He said that when he joined the army in the late 1980s, British or American soldiers would occasionally come to the jungle for exercises. Usually, they would ask the native soldiers how to avoid poisonous snakes and spiders.

The Australian soldiers would reply: 'Forget snakes and spiders, it's bears you need to watch out for ,' Mr Coate recalled. He recalled telling them the only way to avoid bears was to smear their faces with Vegemite - a black, salty, slightly unpleasant-smelling Australian spread.

'We always give foreign soldiers who come to exercise a jar of Vegemite. It takes them a few days to realise that the stuff they smeared all over their faces doesn't work ,' he laughs.

Become a cultural icon

While it's unclear exactly when the legend of the dancing bear originated, it's fairly clear when the fictional creature began to infiltrate Australian popular culture.

In 1981, bassist Chris Toms and his New Zealand friend Johnny Batchelor formed a band called Drop Bears.

Batchelor said he had never heard of a jumping bear in New Zealand. It wasn't until he moved to Australia that he heard about it from his friend Toms. Toms grew up in rural New South Wales and had heard about the terrifying creature. He described it as an Australian ghost story.

'He said people tell stories about jumping bears to scare people, like children ,' Batchelor said.

At first, both were quite excited about the name. However, Batchelor said he gradually grew tired of it. Wherever they went on set or performed, they had to answer the question, 'What is a dancing bear?'

'It's like a burden. This is not what we want ,' he said.

Photoshop image simulating a drop bear. (Photo: Wikimedia).

Batchelor suggests that the popularity of the jumping bear phenomenon is not only tied to Australia's sense of humour, but also a sign of the country's pride in its dangerous native creatures.

Even without the jumping bears, Australia is famous for its deadly creatures, including numerous shark species, snakes and two of the world's most venomous spiders.

' They like to impress foreigners (with their dangerous animals),' he said . 'Now Australian children are less frightened by stories like this, it's tourists who are more frightened.'

If the band Drop Bears had formed in 2000, they probably wouldn't have had to explain their name so often. In the age of the Internet, the legend of the dancing bear has become increasingly popular.

In January 2020, according to Google Trends, searches for the drop bear surpassed both the Loch Ness monster and the American moose rabbit. This is partly due to the drop bear's increasing presence in Australian media and culture.

In 2004, Bundaberg Rum released an ad in which a group of natives try to strike up a conversation with some German tourists by warning them about the deadly predator.

In 2013, Australian Geographic magazine published an April Fool's Day article titled Drop bears target tourists, study says.

In January 2020, a video of a British journalist working for ITV went viral. In the video, she was teased by staff at a wildlife sanctuary. They fitted the reporter with a protective suit before letting her hug a deadly jumping bear. In fact, it was just a harmless koala. Of course, the British reporter was really nervous before hugging the bear.

The dancing bear joke has now appeared on many travel websites, making it more popular than ever.

British female reporter wears protective gear while hugging a koala because she thought the drop bear was real. (Photo: ITV News).

Seeing the speed at which the legend of the dancing bear spread, Batchelor, a member of the band Drop Bears, believes that this fictional creature is gradually losing its appeal and mystery as it becomes more and more known.

'Its power may change. Once people have seen and read about it so much on the internet, stories about it will become stale. It's much more interesting if someone tells you about a scary creature that you think is real ,' he commented.

However, just as people were beginning to believe that all the stories about jumping bears were just fiction, there was an unexpected twist . Recently, there have been many discoveries that suggest that Australia may have once had a deadly predator that leaped from trees to pounce on its prey.

Archaeological evidence points to a prehistoric marsupial lion , the thylacoleo carnifex . This species is believed to have lived and hunted in Australia thousands of years ago. They were good climbers and jumpers. Many believe this is the true origin of the drop bear legend.