Bears are the largest known predator on Earth. The hardest of the photographed was a bear found by American scientists on the island of Kodiak. They put him to sleep and weighed. The mass of the bear was 870 kg.
Why can a bear be called a unique animal?
Bear - in every sense a unique animal. Outwardly, he is awkward, but in fact fast and swift. The speed of his run can be compared with the speed of a horse. With the blow of his paw, he can kill a person without any problems. Nowadays, even a grizzly bear (which is far from the biggest bear in history) causes real horror among hunters. They do not risk hunting him without taking an automatic weapon with them. No wonder the Indians at one time equated the killing of a bear with the killing 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 a grizzly, but it was successfully hunted by Neanderthals for several thousand years. In the ancient caves in which these people lived, many skulls of these huge bears are found. Neanderthals did not have automatic weapons. Therefore, the way they killed the cave bears, apparently, will remain a mystery. Let us dwell on the cave bears in more detail.
Giant Cave Bear - The Largest Bear in History
The largest bear in history can be called a short-faced cave bear. The weight of some of his males reached two tons. If there were competitions in the strength of bite among animals, the cave bear would become a multiple champion. He ate not only moose and deer, like bears of our time. Tigers, lions, and woolly rhinos suffered from his teeth . However, these animals have already become extinct, so they “dropped out of the competition” for the title of the largest animal and were knocked out of the competition for the title of the largest predator of the cave bear, which is a pity ... Larger predators of a very long past could compete with it, perhaps. Where did the short-faced cave bear live? This species of bears 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 on its hind legs, its growth reached 3.5 meters. If we talk about the weight of the cave bear, males weighed at least 600 kilograms. Sexual demorphism was also pronounced. This cave bear is not for nothing called a short-faced. He actually has a very short muzzle, adapted for eating animal food. The cave bear had fangs. They looked more like tiger. In addition, its distinctive feature is the powerful muscles of the jaws. She allowed the bear to inflict deadly captures - bites. Interestingly, the structure of the skull of this bear is more like the structure of a cat's skull. The structure of his body (low back, high front) is more like the structure of the body of hyenas.
The short- faced cave bear fed on him and can it be recreated in reality?
As we already mentioned, this bear preferred animal food. In addition to the above, he ate carrion of large animals. Perhaps the short-faced cave bears died out, because large herbivores, which were their main diet, disappeared. In principle, according to scientists, the cave bear can be recreated using genetic engineering. Its genetic code is well preserved and in the future, with the development of computer technology, it will be quite realistic to restore it. The problem here is only one thing - who will become a surrogate mother for him? The spectacled bear, the closest of "relatives" to him, is ten times smaller than him.
What was the cave bear's lifestyle like?
According to scientists, the winter hibernation of these bears took place only in caves. However, this statement has not been proved in any way. Yes, this is logically impossible. Where would there be so many caves for everyone? Perhaps they arranged their lairs in the dense thickets of the forest, as cave bears lived only in the forests. Also, these bears liked mountain areas, since 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 depletion of his strength, as a result of which in his old age he became the prey of hyenas, mountain lions and wolves. People also did not stand aside and destroyed this species of bears. And then the beast suddenly disappeared. Much earlier than Neanderthals, mammoths, and mountain lions became extinct. Scientists have many versions about the causes of their extinction, but in each of them there is some flaw.
If you learn the truth, then perhaps it will become known why other species of animals and Neanderthals became extinct. Unfortunately, this happened for too long a period of time, which is why it is very difficult for people to find out the truth.