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Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary investigation of late Pleistocene cave bear traces from Urşilor Cave in the western Carpathians, Romania. The bears left thousands of traces on the walls, plateaus, and slopes of the cave interior. Some areas in the cave have been heavily trampled, leaving more than 140 hibernation beds as well as fur impressions. The footprints of cave bears are assigned to Ursichnus europaeus nov. ichnogen. and nov. ichnosp. and the cave bear-beds to Ursalveolus carpathicus nov. ichnogen. and nov. ichnosp. as behavioral traces. Tens of thousands of scratch marks on the slopes and top of a clay plateau are the result of bears moving from the hibernation area down to a stream and back. These traces reveal that the cave bears had short claws, similar to those of modern, primarily herbivorous black bears. Deep within the cave, three weathered, articulated cave bear skeletons still lie in their hibernation beds on the clay plateaus or a natural cave corner. One of these bears was a one-year-old male cub that did not survive its first hibernation; a second skeleton close was an adult female. The third, a young male, was found close to the end of the cave system. The bears of Urşilor Cave would have felt well protected against carnivores during their hibernation because their sleeping places were so deep within the cave. Their strategy may well have been to avoid any conflict with hyenas and lions during hibernation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the Apuseni Mountains National Park of Romania, which supported this research by providing access to the cave. Dr. S. Constantin and Dr. O. Moldovan managed the cave access, and M. Robu and V. Dragusin assisted with cave exploration during the 2008 campaign. The research and expeditions were funded by the Paleologic company, forming part of the “European Ice Age spotted hyena-lion-cave-bear antagonism” research program that is supported by several European museums, which also kindly provided access to their collections. I thank Dr. A. J. Long and especially Dr. J. Harris for critical review and supporting comments of the first version of the manuscript. E. Manning did a spellcheck of the manuscript.