Atlas Bear

Taxobox
name = Atlas Bear
status = EX
extinct = 1870s


image_caption = Mosaic depicting Atlas Bear
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Carnivora
familia = Ursidae
genus = "Ursus"
species = "U. arctos"
subspecies = "U. a. crowtheri"
trinomial = "Ursus arctos crowtheri"
trinomial_authority = Schinz, 1844The 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 and neighboring areas, 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.

In Popular culture

A female Atlas Bear and her cub appears in an episode of Kimba the white lion where the people thought she was a monster, killing livestock until Kimba and Cheetah discover her and her cub In the Atlas Mountains.

References

*cite journal |last=Hamdinea |first=Watik |authorlink= |coauthors=Thévenotb, Michel; Michaux, Jacques |year=1998 |month= |title= _fr. Histoire récente de l'ours brun au Maghreb |journal= _fr. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences |volume=321 |issue=7 |pages=565–570 |doi=10.1016/S0764-4469(98)80458-7 |url= |language=French |quote=

External links

*eol|16987686