Bears as Predators ~

[brotherbear]

THE BEAR - History of a Fallen King - by Michel Pastoureau. 
Perhaps the first book about a particular animal written by a historian.
Whereas the Celts and Germans had seen pictures of lions or elephants only relatively recently, shortly before or shortly after the Roman conquest, the situation was different for the peoples of Mediterranean Europe. They had long known of the existence of the large maned-cat, the huge pachyderm, and a few other exotic animals remarkable for their size, their power, and their appearance. The Romans in particular had been able to marvel at the physical presence of various species in the circus games that were larger and more savage than the European bear.
Although they sometimes staged battles in the arena between bears and bulls ( the bears almost always won ), they especially liked to see wild animals brought from Africa or Asia fight one another or against men. Sometimes, however, curiosity made them wonder about the strength of a bear or a bull compared to that of an animal from afar, and so there were battles between bears and lions, bears and panthers, bulls and lions, bulls and an elephant, and even a bear and a rhinoceros. Although bulls, fighting alone or in a group, seem never to have been victorious, a bear always won in single combat against a lion or against several panthers.
But that was not enough to make the bear the king of beasts in the eyes of the Romans. Like the Greeks - who had little fondness for animal combat - they preferred to install on the throne either lion or, perhaps more frequently, the elephant. There never seems to have been a battle between a bear and an elephant, but Martial recorded a combat in Rome late in the first century of our era between a bear and a rhinoceros: the latter won easily, piercing the bear's stomach with its horn, then lifting its wounded opponent from the ground with its snout and tossing it in the air several times. A cruel humiliation for the European champion.

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