Scottish reporter handles infamous Australian Drop Bear

In what some people call the ultimate Aussie prank, a Scottish reporter was that she could meet an infamous Australian drop bear.

UK’s ITV News Asia correspondent was reporting on the bushfires when she was told that some locals had a surprise for her reserved only for “special visitors”. She was going to hold the koala’s terrifying cousin, the drop bear, on camera. Now Debi doesn’t know much about drop bears so she’s told some basic facts about the animal. Drop bears are “vicious”, have fangs, and are poisonous.

To protect her from the feral creature, Debi was geared up in full body armour complete with goggles and gloves and boots. Not to mention, someone has a dart gun handy… just in case.

The video encounter was uploaded by the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park's Sean Mulcahy, showing Debi trying to remain calm while meeting a 'drop bear'.

"I'm a bit worried about why I need this much protection," she said to the camera.

"I've been told this is quite a dangerous animal. It's been known to attack people. It's called a drop bear because they drop out of the tree and attack people.

"Everybody looks very worried about this. I'm trying not to be worried because I've been told it can sense when I'm worried."

She was particularly scared when one of the blokes warned her that they were preparing a dart gun in case things escalated. The people around her then asked for the koala back and that's when the penny dropped for poor Debi. Everyone burst out laughing and she realised she'd been had.

She added that "it was the only time that she saw the people around her laugh that day because they had spent so much energy fighting bushfires and making sure the animals were okay".

Bushfires on Kangaroo Island have killed two people, burned thousands of acres of land to a crisp and wiped out many more animals. The fires flared up just after New Year's Day and people have been evacuated in their droves over the past few days.

A GoFundMe to help the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park get back on its feet has so far raised more than $1.7 million.