Bears in Britain

When did the bear become extinct in Britain? I have read (but without any sources given) that the Romans preferred to use Scottish bears as entertainment in the Colosseum at Rome, because they were fiercer. Also that bears were still in Ireland until the 10th century.

Are there any myths of the Irish/British/Scottish that refer to bears? Or records of bear encounters the older histories and chronicles?

These questions were prompted by seeing a number of Pictish stones with bears carved onto them. These could be from cultural memories, or imported stories (from the Vikings?), but I wonder.

Well, deja vu!! - Exactly my words but with someone else's name.:-)

See:http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31377&KW=bears

Maybe it'lll generate some new interest, but seems a waste as there's an existing thread. Cheers for the link CV.

Edited by Sidney - 25-Aug-2012 at 09:32

One theory suggests King Arthur was named after a bear

Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis That's only because there were no Smilodon fatalis in ancient Britain.

No idea with these two, in but in the old Lion vs Tiger fight thing, everyone backs tigers, but in recorded history almost every encounter was won by the lion. This is because lions fight each other regularly and have evolved to fight a face to face in a brawl, but tigers avoid each other and are ambush predators used to attacking prey from behind, so have no brawling ability.

The only wild cat in Britain at that time was the lynx in Scotland and Yorkshire. We did have other fierce wild beasts though: in addition to bears there were wolves and wild boar

Originally posted by Nick1986 One theory suggests King Arthur was named after a bear

Originally posted by Toltec The troops proclaimed their generals imperator not emperor. Imperator is a military rank similar to field marshal given to general who commanded whole regions of the empire.

Originally posted by Iolo Originally posted by Nick1986 One theory suggests King Arthur was named after a bear It is not a theory - 'arth' means 'bear' in modern cymraeg ('Welsh').   For my money, general Ambrosius Aurelianus used a bearskin for a 'signum' so that his men could recognise him in battle, and his British -speaking soldiers called him 'the Bear'.

Presumably a British bearskin? Meaning bears were still around in Britain in the 5th-6th Century AD.

Edited by Sidney - 23-Nov-2012 at 13:18

Dunno Sid...ya might query red viz PM for a file check.