At 3.5 meters long and with a shoulder height of 1.7 meters, the cave bear was one of the giants of the Ice Age. Yet few appear to have survived until the last glacial maximum 24,000 to 19,000 years ago. Researchers have conducted analyses to find out what likely caused the extinction of these large herbivores. It is believed that the renewed cooling of the climate and hunting by humans — added to the bears purely vegetarian diet — increased the pressure on this megafauna species.
