Bears are the largest known predators on Earth. The heaviest of those photographed was a bear found by American scientists on Kodiak Island. They put him to sleep and weighed him. The mass of the bear turned out to be 870 kg.
Why is the bear a unique animal?
The bear is a unique animal in every sense. Outwardly, he is clumsy, but in fact he is fast and impetuous. The speed of his run can be compared with the speed of a horse. With a blow of his paw, he can easily kill a person. Nowadays, even the grizzly bear (which is far from the largest bear in history) causes real horror among hunters. They don't risk hunting him without taking automatic weapons with them. No wonder the Indians at one time equated the killing of a bear with the murder of the leader of an enemy tribe. It is the leader, and not the best warrior. Interestingly, the same cave bear was much larger than the grizzly, but it was successfully hunted by Neanderthals for several thousand years. Many skulls are found in the ancient caves in which these people lived.those big bears. Neanderthals didn't have automatic weapons. Therefore, the way in which they killed the cave bears, apparently, will remain a mystery. Let's dwell on cave bears in more detail.
The giant cave bear is the largest bear in history
The largest bear in history can be called a short-faced cave bear. The weight of some of its males reached two tons. If there were animal bite competitions, the cave bear would be a multiple champion. He ate not only elk and deer, like the bears of our time. Tigers, lions, woolly rhinos suffered from his teeth. However, these animals have already died out, so they “dropped out of the competition” for the title of the largest animal and knocked out the cave bear from the competition for the title of the largest predator, which is a pity … Only larger predators of the very old past could compete with it. Where did the short-faced cave bear live? This type of bear lived in North America approximately 12-44 thousand years ago. He appeared on earth approximately 300 thousand years ago.
What did the cave bear look like?
This bear was very big. Based on the findings of archaeologists, the height of the shoulders of this "bear" was 1.5–1.8 meters. When the cave bear stood up on its hind legs, its height reached 3.5 meters. If we talk about the weight of the cave bear, the males weighed at least 600 kilograms. Sexual demorphism was also pronounced. This cave bear is named for a reasonshort-faced. It actually has a very short snout adapted to eating animal food. The cave bear had fangs. They looked more like tigers. In addition, its distinctive feature is the powerful muscles of the jaws. She allowed the bear to inflict deadly grips - bites. Interestingly, the structure of the skull of this bear is more like the structure of a cat's skull. His body structure (low ass, high front) is more like that of hyenas.
KEat the short-faced cave bear and can it be recreated in reality?
As we already mentioned, this bear preferred animal food. In addition to the above, he fed on the carrion of large animals. Perhaps the short-faced cave bears died out because the large herbivores that were the main diet for them disappeared. In principle, according to scientists, it is quite possible to recreate a cave bear with the help of genetic engineering. Its genetic code is well preserved and in the future, with the development of computer technology, it will be quite possible to restore it. There is only one problem here - who will become a surrogate mother for him? The spectacled bear, the closest "relative" to him, is ten times smaller.
What was the lifestyle of the cave bear?
According to scientists, the hibernation of these bears took place only in caves. However, this assertion has not been proven in any way. Yes, this is logically impossible. Where would there be so many caves for everyone? Perhaps they made their own lairs indense thickets of the forest, since cave bears lived only in forests. Also, these bears liked the mountainous regions, as the remains of a cave bear were found even at an altitude of 3,000 meters above sea level.
Scientists believe that the Florida cave bear lived for about 20 years. Perhaps the reason for this was the exhaustion of his strength, as a result of which he became the prey of hyenas, mountain lions and wolves in his old age. People also did not stand aside and destroyed this species of bears. And then the animal suddenly disappeared. Much earlier than Neanderthals, mammoths and mountain lions died out. Scientists have many versions about the reasons for their extinction, but each of them has some flaw.
If the truth is known, then perhaps it will become known why other species of animals and Neanderthals became extinct. Unfortunately, this happened over too long a period of time, making it very difficult for people to know the truth.
