From latin "Ursus", bear is a carnivorous mammal. One russian proverb says : " Give food to a bear in summer in order that he doesn't devour you in winter ".


The bear silhouette looks like human beings. In the old days in Europe, bears were "domestic" : " The circus ringmaster "made them dance with a tambourine.


Hunting by men and urbanization, the bear population has much regressed but nowadays, the bears legendary image is still firmly rooted in the imagination.


The bear family "Ursidés" is 20 million years old. The big bears of the north hemisphery have approximately the same way of life, the same food and the same activities.


With a great number of north hemisphere communities, who had to cohabite, bears are considered as 'the other" fellow creature.



These bears are big mammals with a thick fur, with strong limbs and sharp claws.

For 20.000 years, cave bears lived over Europe, in the plains and the mountains and in areas with oceanic climate.

Pollen analysis found in "La Balme-à-Collomb" specify pine tree and epicea existence. We know nowadays the cave bears caracteristics, on the other hand, we don't know how they lived





Their way of life is imagined by the actuals big bears "the grizzlis" for example but many details are not the same.

"Ursus spelaeus" had a more massive body with a more developped trunk, in the form of a barrel. His foreleg were longer than their hind leg.

Their head was unique with its frontal bumps.

The cave bear extinction was not sudden. In France, it seems that the species became rare ther is now less than 20.000 years.

Today we think that there are not only one reason but many and above two reasons : the climatic changes with global warming and Human influence because of population increase.

Here is a recent cart of the repartition of bears in Europe, published in the magazine Terre Sauvage n° 235, february 2008.

You can read it and I will only quote this sentence of Stefan Jakimiuk from the WWF of Poland : " The cohabitation with the mankind and the great carnivore is possible if: