Drop bear - Australia’s favorite fictional creature to trick unwary tourists

In Australia, the drop bear is a legendary creature used to prank unwitting tourists and newcomers.

Ask almost any Australian about a drop bear, and they’ll probably regale you with tales of this ferocious, fanged relative of the koala, Caliber.Az reports citing the foreign media.

They might recount harrowing stories of relatives being gravely injured or friends narrowly escaping death from this mythical creature.

But despite the chilling anecdotes, the drop bear is nothing more than an elaborate hoax. It does not exist.

Many countries have mythical creatures that are rumored to exist but are never actually seen—think dragons, yetis, or the Loch Ness monster. However, the drop bear presents a unique twist: no Australian truly believes it’s real. Instead, it’s a playful invention used to spook unsuspecting tourists.

Here’s how it typically plays out: As a tourist prepares to venture into the bush, an Australian will casually warn them to “watch out for the drop bears.” When the tourist inquires about this mysterious creature, they’re told it’s a menacing, clawed animal that drops from trees without warning.

“You get them looking up at the trees, anxious,” said Ian Coate, author and founder of Mythic Australia. “The reaction is priceless—it taps into that quintessential Aussie sense of humor.”

Some Australians have taken the drop bear hoax to an entirely new level. The Museum of Australia, for example, has created a fictional information page on its website, warning about the dangers of these imaginary creatures.

“Once prey is within view, the Drop Bear will drop from as high as eight meters to pounce on the unsuspecting victim. The initial impact often stuns the prey, allowing the Drop Bear to bite the neck and quickly subdue it,” the mock page claims.

Even Australian celebrities are in on the fun. When CNN Travel asked film star Chris Hemsworth for tips on avoiding drop bears in 2018, he humorously advised, “Bring an umbrella.”

Despite the drop bear’s growing popularity and its international lore, its true origins remain a mystery.

The drop bear legend doesn't seem to have originated from a specific book or film. According to the National Library of Australia, the earliest known reference to drop bears in an Australian newspaper is a 1982 listing in *The Canberra Times*, the newspaper for the national capital. The entry reads: “TAM – Beware of drop bears in the future, for sure, totally love Clint.” The identities of TAM and Clint remain unclear.

Some attribute the drop bear myth to a sketch by the iconic Australian comedian and actor Paul Hogan, who is best known internationally as Crocodile Dundee. On his show, *The Paul Hogan Show*, which aired in the 1970s and 80s, Hogan performed a skit where he parodied Indiana Jones as “Cootamundra Hoges.” In this sketch, he explores the fictional “Valley of Goannas” and is attacked by killer koalas, a humorous nod that may have contributed to the drop bear lore.

In the sketch, koalas leap from the trees and begin attacking Hogan, who collapses under their assault, humorously depicted as being overwhelmed by the animals.

However, Ian Coate of Mythic Australia recalls hearing about drop bears from his scout leader in the early 1970s, well before Paul Hogan's show aired. “When we were out camping, the drop bear story was used to keep us from straying too far from the campgrounds,” Coate explained. “We were told that if we ventured into the bush, the drop bears would get us.”

While the drop bear has evolved into a playful tale to scare tourists, it likely began as a ghost story to spook Australian children. Not every Australian grew up with drop bear stories, but those who did often heard them from their parents, especially in rural or farming communities.

In one amusingly doctored image, a drop bear is shown attacking an innocent family. Coate suggests that some of the first people to be frightened by the drop bear might not have been tourists at all but rather early visitors to Australia.

During his time in the army in the late 1980s as part of the survey corps, Coate recalled that visiting soldiers from the UK and US would often seek advice on avoiding Australia’s notoriously dangerous snakes and spiders. “We’d tell them, 'Forget the snakes and spiders; it's the drop bears you need to watch out for,’” Coate said.

He reminisced about how he would tell these visiting soldiers that the best way to ward off drop bears was to smear Vegemite, a popular Australian condiment, on their faces. “We’d hand them a jar of Vegemite and let them figure out for themselves that it didn’t actually keep the drop bears away,” he chuckled. “It would usually take them a few days to catch on that the Vegemite wasn’t doing anything.”