'Cuddly' the marsupial lion sculpture patrols Gateway Island

With a camouflaging striped coat, extremely strong forelimbs, and the strongest bite of any known mammal species, Thylacoleo Carnifex, colloquially known as the marsupial lion, was a deadly ambush hunter, able to climb trees as well as balance on hind legs to free it's deadly forearms to slash and grasp prey.

"His jaw was as strong as a 250kg African lion's," Kevin Ennis, the sculptor of Gateway Island's newest apex predator, said.

"He didn't have the ability to run, he was too big and muscular, so he was an ambush predator and hunted the two metre tall kangaroos known as a procoptodon, and the diprotodon, which were ancient wombats.

"He also had retractable claws for attacking purposes but also to climb trees, and a lot of people think because of that, he was the original drop bear."

'Cuddly', the name given to the predator, emerged after Parklands Albury Wodonga commissioned Kevin and the Wodonga Men's Shed to create four Australian megafauna sculptures along the Gateway Island Cultural Trail.

"The idea behind this is to try and get young people a bit more engaged and interested in the environment and our natural history, by creating megafauna sculptures along this popular trail," Parklands' Ant Packer said.

"The council did a master plan for Gateway Island six years ago, and they identified this area to become a native botanic gardens, so we thought, these megafauna sculptures are a great way to foster interest in the gardens."

'Cuddly' is the first of four life-size megafauna from the Pleistocene period set to patrol Gateway Island, and is made out of ferrocement, fence netting and bird wire.

Kevin is planning on adding the ancient kangaroo and wombat to the mix, and is currently working on an extinct species of giant monitor lizard which grew up to seven metres in length, known as a Megalania.

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"I'm a frustrated artist," he said. "I've always done things like this; I've made whirling dervish statues, fountains and the like in my previous occupation as a landscape gardener, but this is my first time creating animals, and I'm happy to be given the opportunity to do so."

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