Ursus arctos ssp. crowtheri (Atlas Brown Bear)

[another specialist]

I agree with you Carlos with the above. Leave the taxo as is until further research.

[david]

Were ostriches typical prey for the Brown Bears?

[another specialist]

david said:

Were ostriches typical prey for the Brown Bears?

Personally i have foud no source on the net to indicate this but then we don't have that much knowlegde of the atlas bear intotal.

But personally i would say no. Brown bears are more of a scavenger may be the atlas bear ate the occassional egg?

[Bucardo]

david said:

Were ostriches typical prey for the Brown Bears?

Hmmm... One day I saw a baboon attacking and eating a flamingo on a TV show, but I don't believe that baboons eat flamingos all days. I think that this caseis something similar.

[david]

O.K- That's what I thought. But Atlas Bears I know only by name, so I was just curious.

[another specialist]

Yes, what Bucardo has said could also be true.

[another specialist]

U. a. faidherbianus

extinctanimals.proboards22.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=carnivora&thread=1164968470&page=1

The above is a related thread as Carlos states that U. a. faidherbianus is the same as Ursus arctos crowtheri.

At this moment in time it has not been scientifically proven so name is still valid in the world of science.

So until then we should keep both separate but linked.

[leopard81]

nor nme very intersesting

[another specialist]

Yes very interesting and very confusing aswell.

[sordes]

I found this egyptian mural painting which shows probably an Atlas-bear, or at least a close relative of it: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/dossiers/ours_rekhmire.jpg
Source: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/dossiers/ours_atlas.htm

[Carlos]

Most likely a Syrian Bear, as Raynal says.

[sordes]

I had also this thought, but as brown bears were once common in most parts of northern Africa, it could also well be one of the unnamed forms from regions between Morocco and Syria. As Syrian brown bears have a very bright fur, and Atlas bears were much darker, it could well be that they were different subspecies.

[another specialist]

sordes said:

I found this egyptian mural painting which shows probably an Atlas-bear, or at least a close relative of it: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/dossiers/ours_rekhmire.jpg
Source: perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/dossiers/ours_atlas.htm

[sordes]

Okay, this was surely a syrian brown bear, because it was among other tributes and gifts from Syria. BTW, note the pygmy elephant, probably from Tilos. It has a domed head like an asian elephant but a back like an african elephant- or like Elephas antiquus and its dwarfed descendents, which combined both.

[another specialist]

Its a possibility its a syrian brown bear but thats not for sure.

[another specialist]

Extinct and vanishing mammals of the Old World (1945)

Author: Harper, Francis, 1886-

www.archive.org/details/extinctvanishing00harprich

[another specialist]

documents.scribd.com/docs/1lpaf45anyqlsqfe5exa.pdf

[Peter]

There is clear evidence in the fossil record that the Brown Bear Ursus arctos was native to the Maghreb during the Pleistocene and into the Holocene, but its status since the Neolithic is equivocal. Pliny the Elder (c. AD 23–79) stated the ‘well known fact’ that bears were absent from Africa (Toynbee, 1973), an opinion contradicted, however, by at least seven other scholars of the Roman era, including Solinus (c. AD 200), who stated that the African bear was distinguishable from other bears by its ferocity and the length of its fur (Gsell, 1920). Both Brogan (1972) and Toynbee (1973) point out factual errors from the writings of Pliny, about bears and North African mammals, respectively, and both authors, along with Gsell (1920) reject his evidence and state with confidence that bears were, indeed, present in Africa in classical times. All point to the frequent depiction of bears in Roman mosaics in the region, though these may, of course, be illustrations of individuals imported from Europe for slaughter in the amphitheatres. Gsell (1920) was of the opinion that bears may have persisted in Morocco into modern times, based on the writings of certain nineteenth century naturalists, but other natural historians and travellers at this time doubted their presence (Kowalski & Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991), and accounts from recent centuries are remarkable for the absence of specimens to back them up; even the name coined for the Moroccan bear – Ursus crowtheri Schinz – which did much to validate claims for the presence of bears in Africa, was based upon a second-hand description rather than a specimen (Aulagnier & Thevenot, 1986). What is certain is that there are no bears in Africa today and it is likely that they have been absent for some considerable time. Ellerman & Morrison-Scott (1951), in common with others, assumed that this species had been hunted to extinction during the nineteenth century, whereas Kowalski & Rzebik-Kowalska (1991), apparently relying heavily upon the account of Pliny, suggest that it died out naturally in the area before antiquity, a view supported by Aulagnier (1990), who proposed a Neolithic extinction in Morocco, but did not rule out the possibility that it was helped on its way by human activity. It is, nevertheless, possible that the extinction of Brown Bear in the Maghreb was a natural event, coinciding, as it apparently did, with the end of the early Holocene mesic period. Alternatively, it may have persisted in the eastern Maghreb until the Roman era; Kowalski & Rzebik-Kowalska (1991) present no clear evidence for their assertion that it had died out by this time.

Source:
Dobson, M. (1998). Mammal distributions in the western Mediterranean: the role of human intervention. Mammal Review, Volume 28, No. 2, 77–88. Mammal Society paper. (www.sste.mmu.ac.uk/users/shoon/eg2116/WebDocs/mkd-mammal.pdf).

[Peter]

Histoire récente de l'ours brun au Maghreb
Recent history of the brown bear in the Maghreb
Watik Hamdinea, Michel Thévenotb, Jacques Michaux

Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences - Series III - Sciences de la Vie
Volume 321, Issue 7, July 1998, Pages 565–570

Abstract
Bones of the brown bear (Ursus arctos, Mammalia, Carnivora) found in a cave of the Akouker massif (Djurdjura, Algeria) have been dated according to the 14C method as belonging to the historical times (420–600 A.D.). The bone and teeth measurements correspond to a small-sized animal, the smallest ever found in the Maghreb. A review of fossil bears in the Quaternary faunas of North Africa clearly shows that the area of distribution, which was initially wide, shrank at the end of the Upper Pleistocene. The bears had temporarily taken to mountainous areas difficult to access. The bone remains discovered up to now prove that the brown bear was represented by individuals or populations showing a large diversity of size.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0764446998804587

[koeiyabe]

"Atlas of Extinct Animals (in Japanese)" by Radek Maly (2022)