Nedly
30-06-2008, 04:14 PM
I know there has been somethings posted elsewhere but damned if I can find it.
With so many of us heading up there this year I thought it would be wise to post this just to remind everyone of the dangers.
The following is a brief description of a Drop Bear I found on the net.
"There’s a lot of misinformation about dropbears. People put pages on the Web saying they’re eight feet tall with foot-long fangs and who knows what. That’s all bunkum. A dropbear is a marsupial, one of the few marsupial carnivores, which include the Tasmanian devil and the various species of quoll. Dropbears look somewhat like Tasmanian devils, but are more closely related to koalas, and, like koalas, are arboreal. Think of a very big, black koala with pointy ears, a pointy snout and lots of little pointy teeth. A pointy, depraved koala. And heavy. Did I mention heavy? They drop down from the gum trees onto their prey, which is typically knocked unconscious by the impact. Then the dropbear chows down. They’re not big enough to eat a whole human, though, and most victims of dropbear attacks survive, albeit so disfigured that they retreat from public view. There is speculation that Ned Kelly, the bushranger who always wore a bucket-like iron helmet, was a victim of a dropbear attack. Dropbears are a menace to campers, bushwalkers and cross-country skiers, but thankfully Vegemite repels them, if smeared thickly all over the body (under the clothes, if you are wearing clothes). That’s why Australians always carry a jar of Vegemite when we go abroad. It has nothing to do with wanting to eat the stuff, tasty though it is; we just don’t feel safe without it. That is the truth about dropbears."
Be careful out there.
With so many of us heading up there this year I thought it would be wise to post this just to remind everyone of the dangers.
The following is a brief description of a Drop Bear I found on the net.
"There’s a lot of misinformation about dropbears. People put pages on the Web saying they’re eight feet tall with foot-long fangs and who knows what. That’s all bunkum. A dropbear is a marsupial, one of the few marsupial carnivores, which include the Tasmanian devil and the various species of quoll. Dropbears look somewhat like Tasmanian devils, but are more closely related to koalas, and, like koalas, are arboreal. Think of a very big, black koala with pointy ears, a pointy snout and lots of little pointy teeth. A pointy, depraved koala. And heavy. Did I mention heavy? They drop down from the gum trees onto their prey, which is typically knocked unconscious by the impact. Then the dropbear chows down. They’re not big enough to eat a whole human, though, and most victims of dropbear attacks survive, albeit so disfigured that they retreat from public view. There is speculation that Ned Kelly, the bushranger who always wore a bucket-like iron helmet, was a victim of a dropbear attack. Dropbears are a menace to campers, bushwalkers and cross-country skiers, but thankfully Vegemite repels them, if smeared thickly all over the body (under the clothes, if you are wearing clothes). That’s why Australians always carry a jar of Vegemite when we go abroad. It has nothing to do with wanting to eat the stuff, tasty though it is; we just don’t feel safe without it. That is the truth about dropbears."
Be careful out there.