Bears of the Pleistocene

[brotherbear]

The Cave Bear Story... Behavior is plastic and evolves in adaptation to environment and mode of life. After all, the brown bears and cave bears were closely related, and the absence of the other species may have made it possible for the brown bears to step into the "niche" of the cave bear on British soil. 
How close the parallel was is a matter of speculation. It may be that in this area, a less exclusive vegetarian form was better equipped to make a living. whatever the reason, it is a fact that the British Isles came to be a stronghold of Ursus arctos throughout the later Pleistocene, and it survived well into historical times. In 1871, W. Pennant noted that bears survived in the mountains of Scotland to as late as the year 1057. Ireland also had a Pleistocene and postglacial population of bears.   Reply