stringy wrote:
Slaughter wrote:
P.S. Down this way we also share bear stories. Those koalas can give you a real nip.
...as can their close relative the carnivorous Drop Bear (thylarctos plummetus)
Stringy, the deathly silence regarding "drop bears" suggests that many readers are unaware that there is no such thing! For some strange reason, some years back, some Aussie decided that Australia didn't already have enough deadly animals, and invented "drop bears". This is such an old invention, that one beer company even featured them in a TV advert, where some young guys convinced some young babes that it would be best if they set up their tents close to the guys "to protect them from the drop bears"
The harsh truth is that koalas are not even bears, they ARE cuddly, but they hang on tight, and sometimes their sharp (tree-climbing) claws can hurt a bit. Most of the time koalas are high on the eucalyptus leaves they live on. Those fangs are cleverly photoshopped.
So don't worry folks, Australia is a very safe place, as we only have 6 of the top 10 venomous snakes in the world, funnelweb and redback spiders, giant crocodiles, blue-ringed octopi, stone fish, great white and bull sharks and man-o-war jellyfish, so you can come on down with nothing to fear at all!