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DIE BONTEBOK
By: Dr Kas Hamman
Image of the now extinct Atlas bear
ONCE UPON A TIME AFRICA WAS HOME TO BEARS Although the African continent is endowed with some of the richest animal species diversity in the world, today there are no bears to be found on this continent. However, there was a time not so long ago when bears roamed northern Africa, especially the Atlas Mountains from Morocco to Libya. The Atlas bear Ursus arctos crowtheri originated from the Asian brown bear Ursus arctos that migrated into the northern parts of Africa about 10 000 years ago. As result of this isolation, it evolved into a subspecies of the brown bear.
A
s in the case of many other species, man was responsible for the extinction of these magnificent animals in recent times mainly due to their capturing for recreational use, the zoo trade and unsustainable hunting. The Atlas Bear population went extinct in Africa a meagre 150 years ago, alongside declining bear numbers in Europe. Not commonly known is that the Atlas bear was predated by the biggest bear that ever roamed the earth. Scientist discovered fossil remains of this huge animal in some parts of Africa, like the SubSaharan, Ethiopia and South Africa. The scientific name of this extinct pre-historic animal is Agriotherium africanum and it weighed around 900 kilograms, which is more than double the weight of the largest bears living today. Imagine a world where bears weighing almost a ton roamed the plains of Africa. These bears were quite different from the bears we know today and existed for many millions of years, but went extinct about 2,5 million years ago – long before the Atlas bear migrated into the northern parts of Africa and humans started populating the globe. Why did the Atlas bear go extinct? The decline and recent demise of the
Atlas bear can be partly attributed to the expansion of the Roman Empire into the northern parts of Africa. The Romans intensely hunted and captured Atlas bears (among other local animals) and used them as entertainment for many of their games. This went on for centuries, during which time thousands of bears were used in the arenas to fight against gladiators, lions, tigers and other animals. They were cruelly treated, often starved and malnourished to increase their desperation, and hence their aggression, within the Roman arenas. Thousands of these bears were also hunted for sport, venatio (Latin for “hunting”) was a type of entertainment in Roman amphitheatres involving the hunting and killing of wild animals. The execution of criminals in ad bestias (Latin for “condemnation to beasts”) was a form of Roman capital punishment where a condemned person was killed by wild animals, usually lions, big cats or bears. The Atlas bear became extinct shortly after modern firearms were used for hunting which contributed to their decline. Pressure from zoo collectors sealed their fate by reducing the numbers of these animals to below
sustainable reproduction levels. The Atlas bear finally became extinct in the late 19th century and the last animal recorded to be killed by hunters was in 1870 in the Tetouan Mountains in northern Morocco. Human behaviour most definitely was the main and decisive contributor that caused the extinction of Africa’s Atlas bear. Distribution of the Brown bear and its sub-species The most widespread bear species is the Brown bears Ursus arctos. This species entered Europe about 250,000 years ago and are still found in large parts of Asia. Brown bear fossil remains from the Pleistocene geological period (2,5 million years ago to present) are common in the British Isles and Europe. Geographic isolation resulted in the evolution of several sub-species. The brown bear entered Alaska about a 100,000 years ago, though they only started moving south into Canada and north America about 13,000 years ago, where it is also known as the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis). Today, several bear species are classified as endangered, but the common brown bear is the only bear species that is not classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
