Atlas Bear
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| Atlas Bear | ||||||||||||||||
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 Mosaic depicting Atlas Bear
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Extinct (1870s)
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| Ursus arctos crowtheri Schinz, 1844 |
The Atlas Bear (Ursus arctos crowtheri) was a subspecies of the Brown Bear, but sometimes considered a distinct species. It was Africa's only native bear. Once inhabiting the Atlas Mountains from Morocco to Libya, the animal is now thought to be extinct. Thousands of these bears were hunted for sport, venatio games, or execution of criminals ad bestias following the expansion of the Roman Empire into North Africa. The last known specimen was probably killed by hunters in the 1870s in the Tetuan Mountains of northern Morocco, although reports still surface.
Sometimes, it is suggested that this animal might still be alive in eastern Africa, and is the source of the cryptid known as the nandi bear. This is essentially ruled out by biogeography, however. Nonetheless, as the known distribution of the Atlas Bear is a relict of the desertification of the Sahara, its ancestor may have been widespread in northern and eastern Africa in prehistoric times.
