Yesterday’s post was about a 1933 article on the Nandi bear, a terrifying creature said to be the size of a polar bear, who dropped out of trees onto the head of its unsuspecting victim. I was not sure if the bear dropped out teeth first, killing the prey that way, or if it just relied on hundreds of kilos of unexpected furry impact to knock the life out of them before beginning the feast.
The Advertiser 14 April 1925 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73432764
Luckily I found this earlier article from 1925 giving us more details about the killing style of this terrible beast.
Apparently the Nandi bear didn’t just leap down and eat the victim whole, it was far more selective than that. According to this report the Nandi bear feasts on human brains, then scalps the victim. Nice.
Now, I don’t know too much about this biology stuff, but I think it is a safe bet that a creature the size of a polar bear who would clearly need a substantial amount of food to maintain good health and only exists on human brains in a remote jungle would be fairly easy to kill off. STAY AWAY PEOPLE!
A few weeks without its major food source and surely the creatures would be so weak that there would be very little danger of any of them climbing trees or leaping out unexpectedly. You could just stroll along and dong them on the head with a club when they lunged pathetically towards your delicious brain. Voila, a nice brown rug with strangely human hands and backward thumbs to adorn the floor of your hut.
Of course I am interested to find out what the Nandi bear does with the scalps of its victims. Is there a bear-sized hut deep in the jungle decorated with human scalps?
______________________
I’m going to add both the Thylarctos plummetus (Drop bear) link again, just because it is such a perfect match (and I’m still laughing over some of the comments), and a Bundaberg Rum advert (starring the Bundy Bear) that has unintentionally, but conveniently, combined both the Drop bear story and my mental picture of the Nandi bear.
Loved this. Okay, dumb question: Are drop bears real? (The link to the museum isn’t working right now— museum site is under maintenance.)
And I loved your idea of the bear-sized hut decorated with scalps. I don’t know why. It’s got that old fashioned homey touch, I guess. ; )
I can imagine that human scalps on the walls are the same version of decor for bears as taxidermy heads are for humans. I wonder if there is a Goldilocks scalp up there too….
I read your comment on yesterdays post that tells me you are now in on the Drop bear joke too, many tourists have fallen for it, there is no shame 😉
*Laughing* Goldilocks’s scalp?!? That’s great!
I totally fell for this joke. Fully.
😀
Fantastic.
A brain eating, scalp stealing, backwards thumbed, polar bear from the trees is a myth lovers dream come true 😀
That is hilarious. Love it.
I love that ‘eating human brains’ touch. Surely there can’t be enough humans to maintain such a creature! They must have a really long hibernation cycle (tucked up in their bed of human scalps) 😉
If I ever come by for a visit remind me to wear a helmet — and Nandi sounds so nice!
I think that you would probably be best kitted out with an extra reinforced umbrella with a specially sharpened spike. That, and a very tight hat! 🙂
Love it. That clip was a great find 🙂
Who would have thought the Bundy Bear would ever be useful. I have never seen this ad on telly before so it really was a lucky find. It illustrated both ideas perfectly, didn’t it! 😀
What a great ad! I guess this drop bear must have been a vegetarian 😉
Well, it is the Bundy Bear. Perhaps he had drunk too much of his namesake to be able to hang on to the branch any longer 😉
lmao – that would make him the Boozy Bear!
Pingback: Beware of the Drop Bear | Café Crochet