The whole world loves koala’s, in fact not liking koala’s could probably point to some other personality issues, so when images of a sweet koala making a leap at the San Diego Zoo hit social media this week people all over were getting warm fuzzy feelings feelings inside.
An adorable #koala @SanDiegoZoo took a huge leap and became the Internet’s newest meme —https://t.co/yQG0WZ4LJP pic.twitter.com/85HrQJGXi8
— Shine (@shine_report) August 12, 2015
Check out my caption! Add yours: @buzzfeed aracılığıyla — jenny (@ozgulozcolak) August 11, 2015
Image from James J LaRue
But Australia is also home to the cute chap’s less lovelable cousin the infamous Drop Bear…. These terrifying creatures are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous marsupials related to koalas that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above… One jumping koala we won’t be coo’ing over….
The Australian Museum website has a purportedly serious entry on drop bears in its catalogue of Australian fauna, classifying them as Thylarctos plummetus, “a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala”. It describes the creatures as being the size of a very large dog, having coarse orange fur with dark mottling, with powerful forearms for climbing and attacking prey, and a bite made using broad powerful premolars rather than canines. Specifically it states that they weigh 120 kilograms and have a length of 130 centimeters.
Thankfully this tongue-in-cheek entry was created for “silly season” as part of an April Fool’s joke. The Australian Museum later established a small display in the museum itself, exhibiting artefacts which it says “may, or may not, relate to actual Drop Bears”.
Yet Facebook pages and websites are devoted to warning visitors and locals Down Under against the real threat of Drop Bears who ‘will go for your throat’ – so it’s probably best to decide for yourself if they are real or not.
The popular pixel game Crossy Road gives you the opportunity to through a Drop Bear under a bus.
Images: Facebook and Crossy Road
Source: Mashable
