Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus Rosenmüller & Heinroth) males' den from Velika Pećina in Duboka Near Kučevo, Eastern Serbia

Abstract

More a 100 years after the first research in the cave Velika pećina in Duboka near Kučevo cave bear remains were discovered in a small chamber cut off from the passable channels by a 7 m high slope. A whole skull, bones of a forearm in articulation, and other skeleton parts were laying on the cave floor encrusted in travertine cover and in some places overgrown by stalagmites. Bones belonged to adult males, which found there the shelter to hibernate, in a short epizode that ended by closing the channels that once linked this part of the cave to a surface.

Keywords

• cave bear
• Upper Pleistocene
• Serbia