Talk:Drop bear
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[edit] It is not a myth
My name is John, and I grew up in Latrobe Valley, in the Australian Bush, where there ARE Not dropbears. There has been a coverup by our council for as long as I have been born i am kidding they r so fake. They are common knowledge in that particular area of bush just kidding i am trying to fool all of you. I can really say that I have not seen them myself. I have been trying to find some accurate information on the bear on the Internet and I am laughing with the jokes and articles calling it folklore. As soon as I venture out into this small conceded area of bushland I will return with drawings so you can all have the chance to see the amazing dropbear.
[edit] Dont ruin it
The Drop Bear legend is much more fun for us Aussies if Americans dont know about it, I mean they are gullible but if they have read about it here they are not going to believe it... :(
- Friend of mine is Aussie, she already filled me in. Sorry. ;-) --Cuervo 21:12, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
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- The people who would believe in Dropbears aren't normally the kind of people you would find browsing an internet encyclopedia. ;) ~Bongomanrae
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- I was told a story about during a military exercise in the US, between American and Australian Forces. Australian soldiers told of the Drop Bears, about the horrors where they'd jump down from the trees and ravage your head with their sharp claws and menacing fangs, and that the repellant was to wear Vegemite on the face and on the neck. They explained this was why Vegemite was created. Apparently it travelled so far up, that Australian commanders would tell the same thing to their US counterparts. So during the next exercise to be held in Australia, American commanders warned their men on the dangers of dropbears, and to regularly wear Vegemite when travelling in the bush. I bet that would have been a fantastic silent laugh. :P --takagawa-kun 16:17, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
- Theres already plenty of info on drop bears on the internet, they can find out about it at lots of other places [1] -- Astrokey44|talk 03:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] IMO
IMO, the background of this bit of folklore is that eucalypt trees shed branches without warning, so it is unwise to camp beneath them. Yes, people have been killed. One tells one's kids about the drop bears for the same reason that germans dark-age Germans told kids terrifying stories about kids who get lost in the forest. --(From User:203.10.231.229, moved here by Ardonik 02:03, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC))
[edit] from VfD
On 29 July 2004, this article was nominated for deletion. The consensus reached was to keep the article. See Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Drop Bear for a record of the discussion. Rossami 00:35, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
[edit] vandalism by 4.43.140.129
The above editor has deleted the article category and external link for no apparent reason, as well as vandalising my user page. --Centauri 03:05, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Well no wonder!! You're giving the game away you deadbeat!! Drop bears are a national treasure, used to protect out forests from the ravishes of roaming American and Japanese tourists.
- The ravishes of roaming Americans? Did you mean radishes. --Gene_poole 11:12, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] who's copying here?
I stumbled over this one: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Drop-Bear - and it's a precise copy of the wikipedia text. is that actually permitted?
- Yes this GNU
Methinks that the pictures are scary
[edit] Hoop Snake
Lesser known, but still quite fearsome, is the Hoop Snake, which bites its own tail and forms its body into a rigid circle. Having established the 'hoop', the snake rolls silently down a hill towards its victim, using the momentum of its descent to uncoil in a sudden vicious strike.
Keeps tourists and bushwalkers checking nervously over their shoulders as they descend an incline. Captainmax 04:57, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
- Very amusing... haven't heard that one before.--Centauri 05:53, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
- I've heard of hoop snakes before but half a world away. It was in reference to the Ozark Mountains. Andromeda321 23:03, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
- the hoop snake derives from truck tyre remnants lying beside the highway -- when a big 18-wheeler has a blowout they often leave behind a hoop of tyre rubber (along with lots of other bits of tyre) that looks like a round black snake [biting its tail]. --Stewartjohnson 13:58, 30 October 2005 (UTC)
- we have an article on the Hoop snake. it could use some revision and expansion. anyone? Lisapollison 03:41, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Update.
Just a brief update to keep the great Australian conspiracy under wraps. Little do they know of our Steve Irwin cloning plants... Anyhow. Yes, the Jan 17 updates are erroneous, maybe even false (have you ever lost a family member to a drop bear - I haven't. But I might!). But they are temporary in order to achieve a specific effect elsewhere. Replacement with the previous "correct" data will by no means earn my ire or even complaint.
[edit] Cryptozoology
Drop bears are humorous, mythical "creatures". There is a slight possibly that they are loosely based on real extinct creatures. They are no more cryptozoological than the jackalope or the pacific midwestern tree octopus - ie not at all. --Gene_poole 03:39, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
Regardless of the humour value involved in telling visitng Americans that vicious, carnivorous Koala Bears will descend from the Eucalypts and tear out their jugulars if they aren't careful, the fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a "Drop Bear" and this article really should be edited to reflect that- Commander Zulu
[edit] Widow-makers?
I've lived in various parts of Australia and have never heard of eucalypts described as widow-makers. Is there a source for this claim? --Gene_poole 05:26, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
It's not an uncommon term amongst the loggers and foresters i've worked with. --Beervatar 06:52, 16 Sept 2006
[edit] Pop culture
Does anyone else think it's a little ridiculous to have a list of pop culture references here that's longer than the actual article? I'm assuming most of the games etc described are fairly inconsequential. Anyone care to do some pruning before I leap in with the secateurs? --Gene_poole 04:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] What Goes Up Must Come Down
Hence, this is what a drop bear is. The process has a another name. 'Widow Makers.' Again, Indigenous Lore, that non-Indigenous people don't understand and pick up 1/10th the tale of and go on silly about. Its linked to that bunyip + koala affinity and its the third aspect. However, if yah don't know what a bunyip is, yah canna work it out.
- Can we have that in English please? --Gene_poole 14:14, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Rabies=
The version of the drop bear myth I have always heard/told involves a sort of Rabies that affects the Koalas. That doesn't seem to be reflected in the page at all. 04:16, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
- Never heard that one before. Care to expand on it? --Gene_poole 04:33, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Picture?
I'm an Aussie, and was wondering could someone please upload a picture of a drop bear here? It doesn't matter whether it's photoshopped or not... but just to make the page more appealing? Megan102 00:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
