Drop Bears – Drop Bears (Thylarctos plummetus) and Dropbears the band
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Drop_Bear_(Myth)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/fact-file/fact-file-drop-bear-thylarctos-plummetus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHkJNYtr04E
Drop Bear (Myth) is encountered multiple times throughout the Wallaru storyline:
In the Third Forest Clearing, Drop Bear (Myth) is considered a Boss.
In the second battle in Lagoon Pipeline, Drop Bear (Myth) is considered a Minion to Phantasmanian Devil (Moon).
In the third battle in Lagoon Pipeline, Drop Bear (Myth) is considered a Minion to Tiddalik.
What are they? Some sort of monstrous Koala? Drop Bears are the mythical koalas that leap from the clouds onto their prey. Judge Nelson calls them Killer-olas since Koalas aren’t bears. That’s taxonomical nonsense.
The drop bear (sometimes dropbear) is a hoax in contemporary Australian folklore featuring a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala. This imaginary animal is commonly spoken about in tall tales designed to scare tourists. While koalas are typically docile herbivores (and are not bears), drop bears are described as unusually large and vicious marsupials that inhabit treetops and attack unsuspecting people (or other prey) that walk beneath them by dropping onto their heads from above.
A 1967 article in Army, the Australian Army’s newspaper, mentions “a dreaded Drop Bear”, and a 1976 article about an army base refers to “the legends and stories of drop bears and hoop snakes that supposedly originated there”. Other early appearances in print include a Royal Australian Navy News article in 1978 and a classified advertisement in the Canberra Times in 1982.
Stories about drop bears are generally used as an in-joke intended to frighten and confuse outsiders while amusing locals, similar to North American “fearsome critters” such as the jackalope. Tourists are the main targets of such stories. These tales are often accompanied by advice that the hearer adopt various tactics purported to deter drop bear attacks—including placing forks in the hair, having Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears or in the armpits, urinating on oneself, and only speaking English in an Australian accent.
The website of the Australian Museum contains an entry for the drop bear written in a serious tone similar to entries for other, real, species. The entry classifies the drop bear as Thylarctos plummetus and describes them as “a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the koala”, the size of a leopard, 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 (260 lb) and have a length of 130 centimeters (51 in). The tongue-in-cheek entry was created for “silly season” (a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media.) The Australian Museum also established a small display in the museum itself, exhibiting artifacts which it stated “may, or may not, relate to actual drop bears.”
Dropbears were an Australian rock band active in the early 1980s. They had a few Australian chart hits and received national (Australia) airplay. In 1982, Dropbears released the singles “Fun Loving” and “Lay Him Down”, which both peaked at number one on the Sydney Indie charts. The following year, the band signed to WEA records and went on to release a series of successful singles.
The current list of all the (known) Wallaru references are located here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Drop Bear image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Drop bear Thylarctos plummetus image is borrowed from the Australian Geographic website. The image is credited to the Tasmanian University
Dropbears image is borrowed from The History of Aussie Music Blogspot. No attribution is given for this image.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
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