%0 Journal Article
%T Extinctions of Late Ice Age Cave Bears as a Result of Climate/Habitat Change and Large Carnivore Lion/Hyena/Wolf Predation Stress in Europe
%A Cajus G. Diedrich
%J ISRN Zoology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/138319
%X Predation onto cave bears (especially cubs) took place mainly by lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss), as nocturnal hunters deep in the dark caves in hibernation areas. Several cave bear vertebral columns in Sophie¡¯s Cave have large carnivore bite damages. Different cave bear bones are chewed or punctured. Those lets reconstruct carcass decomposition and feeding technique caused only/mainly by Ice Age spotted hyenas Crocuta crocuta spelaea, which are the only of all three predators that crushed finally the long bones. Both large top predators left large tooth puncture marks on the inner side of cave bear vertebral columns, presumably a result of feeding first on their intestines/inner organs. Cave bear hibernation areas, also demonstrated in the Sophie¡¯s Cave, were far from the cave entrances, carefully chosen for protection against the large predators. The predation stress must have increased on the last and larger cave bear populations of U. ingressus (extinct around 25.500£¿BP) in the mountains as result of disappearing other seasonally in valleys migrating mammoth steppe fauna due to climate change and maximum glacier extensions around 22.000£¿BP. 1. Introduction 1.1. Cave Bear Research History in Germany Many incomplete cave bear bones from the Late Pleistocene Ice Age (113.000¨C22.000£¿BP) have been found in Europe and focussed herein in Germany mainly from 42 famous cave sites but also a smaller number from open air sites (Figure 1(a)). The cave bear bones show always similar patterns of damage [1¨C3] including bones from the new described Sophie¡¯s Cave site in Upper Franconia, Bavaria (Figure 1(b)) and the not far situated famous Zoolithen Cave with its Late Pleistocene herbivorous [4] cave bear ¡°Ursus spelaeus Rosenm¨¹ller 1794¡± [5], whose holotype skull was recently rediscovered [6]. This most famous bone-rich Zoolithen Cave of central Europe with its long history of ¡°cave bear bone hunt¡± [7] has also yielded the holotype skulls of predators such as the Ice Age spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss 1823) [2, 8, 9], the steppe lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss 1810) [8, 10, 11], the ¡°cave wolverine¡± Gulo gulo spelaeus (Goldfuss 1818) [12], and the ¡°cave wolf¡± Canis lupus spelaeus Goldfuss 1823 [9]. Figure 1: (a) Geographical locations of German cave bear sites, both cave den and open air sites, including Sophie¡¯s Cave in Bavaria, southern Germany. (b) Cave map showing cave bear, hyena, and wolf den areas during the early/middle Late Pleistocene in Upper Franconia (Bavaria, Germany). (c) The present-day entrance of Sophie¡¯s Cave. (d)
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.zoology/2013/138319/