The fur is dense to varying degrees and the hair can grow up to 10 cm in length. The head normally is quite round in shape and has relatively small rounded ears, a wide skull and a mouth equipped with 42 teeth, including predatory teeth. Brown bears were present in Britain until no later than AD 1000, when they had been exterminated through over-hunting. Eurasian brown bears were bear meat in Ancient Rome for fighting in arenas.
The strongest bears apparently came from Caledonia and Dalmatia. Unlike in North America, where an average of two people a year are killed by bears, Scandinavia only has records of three fatal bear attacks within the last century. The oldest fossils are from the Choukoutien, China, and date back about 500,000 years. Modern research has made it possible to track the origin of the subspecies. There is a population in Scandinavia that includes bears of the western and eastern lineages.
Brown bears could once be found across most of Eurasia, compared to the more limited range today. Least Concern does not always mean that species are not at risk. There are declining species that are evaluated as Least Concern. The brown bear has long been extinct in Ireland, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, but still exists in Northern Europe and in Russia. The largest brown bear population in Europe is in Russia, where it has now recovered from an all-time low caused by intensive hunting.
Populations in Baltoscandia are similarly, albeit slowly, increasing. Small but still significant populations can also be found in Albania, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro. Bears of this subspecies appear very frequently in the fairy tales and fables of Europe, in particular tales collected by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Ancient DNA evidence for the loss of a highly divergent brown bear clade during historical times”. Albino brown bear killed in 2009. Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. P Naumov editors, Science Publishers, Inc. Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats.