Drop Bear

Thylarctos plummetus known as The drop bear is a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial which is related to the koala. It is a heavy built animal with powerful forearms for climbing and holding on to its prey. It lacks canines, using broad and powerful premolars as biting tools insted.

 

Native to Australia this marsupial is a vicious carnivore that attacks its prey by hiding in a high tree and dropping onto an unsuspecting by standers. The most important thing to remember about this drop bear is that they only bite tourists. The size of this drop bear is 120 kg, 130 cm long as well as 90 cm at its shoulders. These drop bears are mainly found in the densely forested regions of the Great Dividing Range in the south - eastern part of Australia. However there are also some reports of them in South Australia and Mount Lofly Ranges and Kangaroo Island.

 

Examination of kill sites and scats suggest mainly medium to large species of mammal make a substantial proportion of the animal's diet. Often prey such as macropods are larger than the Drop Bear itself. It can wait up to as much as four hours to make a suprise kill. Once prey is within view, this drop bear at once will drop as much as eight metres to pounce on top of the unsuspecting victim. This initial impact often stuns the prey. Allowing it to be bitten on the neck and quickly subdued. If this prey is smaller than the bear it will haul the prey back upto the tree to feed without harassment from other predators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Kaushalya De Silva

Photo source : Internet