NEWCASTLE: Staff at Blackbutt Reserve are on high alert after a routine health check on a newborn koala revealed a startling genetic anomaly, one that matches long-dismissed reports of the legendary Drop Bear.
Nicknamed "Clancy", the joey initially appeared to be a regular, cuddly marsupial. That was until keepers noticed he refused to descend from trees, made deep guttural snarls during feeding time, and attempted an aerial ambush on a school excursion from Warners Bay High.
Experts from the University of Newcastle confirmed traces of a previously undocumented koala subspecies, believed to be a genetic throwback to a prehistoric apex predator marsupial, the basis of Australia’s infamous Drop Bear myth.
“They were thought to be folklore,” said evolutionary biologist Dr. Max Tilley. “But Clancy’s DNA shows markers for
