Cave bears killed by Ice Age

[L Roebuck]

Cave bears killed by Ice Age, not hunters: study
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Giant cave bears froze to death during the last Ice Age in Europe about 28,000 years ago, according to a study on Wednesday that cleared human hunters of driving them to extinction thousands of years later.

The largely vegetarian bears, weighing up to a tonne and bigger than modern polar bears or Kodiak bears, apparently died off as a sharp cooling of the climate led to a freeze that killed off the fruits, nuts and plants they ate.

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[deepcaver]

Interesting.
I know of one cave where one can see the results of a bear trapped by an earthquake during hibernation... or at least that is what is theorized what happened to the poor critter. Claw marks on the flowstone and rock walls are still evident from the animal's efforts to escape.
It's remains were found centuries later by cavers digging open a blowing opening and it's been carbon dated to the last ice-age.
Sad that nature selected these animals for extinction. How fun would it be to go inside an entrance and come nose to nose with something as big as a VW Beetle?