I don't know if it's a big problem any more but I'm given to understand that a lot of Australians have lost cousins and drinking acquaintances to the dreaded drop bears, though perhaps fewer than to various spiders, snakes, crocodiles, sharks and road warriors.
So I was thinking that perhaps an electronic device using a high frequency sound or some kind of wave perhaps enhanced by magnets could be carried that would cause the drop bear to not drop and if that at some minor price could be sold to save future cousins and mates from being lost to these vicious predators.
I think that with proper research and testing (a couple weeks in the bush might do?) you could almost guarantee that anyone carrying a functioning drop bear disabler would never be actually harmed by a drop bear. In fact the hard part might be proving that the device does not harm the poor drop bears beyond depriving them of food.
In the old days, drop bears were a significant threat in the states that later became Germany.
The crops were left to rot in the fields, because harvesting would inevitably end in the Oktoberfest..... and walking home from one of those (with an arm around a buxom blonde named Helga) was a sure way to become a victim of a bear drop!
The problem was solved by an ingenious invention (often ascribed to the famous poet and inventor, Karl Heinz Graf von Übelschwantz) combining brass and oil hardened leather: The Pickelhaube:,
Within two years after they came in general use, not a single drop bear drop was reported.
Drop bears were hunted to extinction here in South Africa in the last century .
On a serious note, this is or what is happening to rhinos right now
I think if you've got rhinos dropping out of trees, then there's justification to hunting them (never heard of "drop bears" until just now)
Perhaps the technology could be adapted to lessen the threat of the Gappe bat which now infests the London Underground (The Tube).
The bats are an invasive species thought to have been brought in by tourists, and are a pest on station platforms, swooping and stealing snacks from the hands of passengers.
They live in large colonies in the tunnels, and the only defence London Transport seems to have on some stations is a simple recorded announcement played as a train arrives to warn customers - "Mind the Gappe".
I am not sure why the Australian distillery that produces Bundaberg Rum chose a polar bear as it's mascot but it has featured in some of the funniest TV adds. This video is the drop bear one.
I volunteer as a motorsport official (flag marshal).
Several years ago at a Major Adelaide event we had some people from the Singapore F1 come for some more experience.
With the Australian sense of humour being what it is, some of us discussed 'drop bears' with the visitors.. their concern was such that they asked for some 'drop bear repellent'....
Australian sense of humor.
I was watching a cooking video by an Australian chef on how to cook salmon. So he holds the fillet up under his nose and closes his eyes as he takes a deep whiff and and says "Reminds me of my girlfriend.". Then he open his eyes wiode and says "She loves to cook salmon too!".
Reminds me of coverage of the Bathurst in the mid 1980s.
It was about the time that remote cameras were first being used around the course (track-cam, kerb-cam atc), and one car had a camera fitted in place of a headlight.
On air, one Aussie commentator said something like "No-one can say Channel 7 doesn't give good head...cam coverage of the race"
