Drop Bear/Pangkala

The Drop Bear is a goofy creature from Australian folklore. Stories of the Drop Bear have no clear origin and are generally accepted to be a joke targeted at tourists, since these are the Drop Bears main targets. Some describe Drop Bears as koala bears reaching anywhere from 3 to 8 feet in height with leathery backsides. They’re thought to have sharp claws and teeth, with estimates of incisors reaching 40 cm in length. They lurk in eucalyptus trees and drop down on victims. It’s thought no one has ever survived a Drop Bear attack, with victims sometimes having their neck broken from being landed on. They are sometimes thought to hunt in packs maxing out at 4, and after a kill, many Drop Bears will fight over the body. There are no known photographs due of Drop Bears due to their ferocity, and their existence is supposedly kept secret by the Australian government.

Citations:

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore. United States, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2016.

Bell, Robin. The Australian Outback: The History and Mythology of the Land Down Under. Sweden, Robin Bell, 2014.

Faulkner, Joanne. Representing Aboriginal Childhood: The Politics of Memory and Forgetting in Australia. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis.

Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. United Kingdom, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2016.