228 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



i 



Manchurian Black Bear; Manchurian Grizzly 



URSUS ARCTOS LASIOTUS J. E. Gray 



Ursus lasiotus J. E. Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 20, p. 301, 1867. 



("North China.") 



SYNONYM: Melanarctos cavijrons Heude. 

 FIG.: Sowerby, 1923, pi. 3. 



For the purposes of the present report, this subspecies is restricted 

 to Manchuria and adjacent regions of the Asiatic mainland, although 

 Pocock (1932, p. 799) provisionally includes with it the bear of Yeso 

 (Hokkaido) and the Kuriles (U. a. yesoensis Lydekker). 



Only five museum skins of this little-known bear seem to be on 

 record from Manchuria and Mongolia (Pocock, 1932, p. 799). It is 

 becoming increasingly rare, and calls for government protection in 

 some way or other if it is to be saved from ultimate extinction 

 (Arthur de C. Sowerby, in litt., April 24, 1937) . 



It is as large as the Kamchatkan Brown Bear (U. a. beringianus 

 Middendorff) but differs from it on the average, at least, in the 

 prevalent blackness of its hue. The general color is glossy black; 

 muzzle brown ; underwool brown. Adult male from Manchuria : head 

 and body, 6 feet 7 inches; tail, 5.5 inches (Pocock, 1932, pp. 799- 

 800.) 



The range seems to include the forested regions of northern 

 Manchuria, northern Mongolia, southeastern Siberia, and perhaps 

 northern Korea. 



Sowerby (1920, pp. 230-231) shot a specimen in North Kirin, 

 Manchuria, and heard reports of a similar animal in South Kirin, 

 on the lower Sungari River, and in northern Korea. "The specimen 

 I shot was very savage .... The native Russians and Chinese 

 greatly fear this animal, as it has been known to kill and devour 

 hunters." 



Sowerby also writes (1923, p. 58) : "The distribution of this 

 species is doubtful, or, perhaps it would be more correct to say, is 

 not known. So far it has been recorded only from the forest near 

 Tsi-tsi-har in South-western Heilung-kiang, and from the forest 

 in the I-mien-p'o district of North Kirin. From all accounts, how- 

 ever, it occurs throughout the Manchurian forest, and on into 

 Primorsk [Siberia]." He adds that a hunter reports this form as 

 "much rarer than the black bear [Selenarctos] , occurring in the 

 proportion of one in twenty of the bears shot in the district." 



Syrian Bear 



URSUS ARCTOS SYRIACUS Hemprich and Ehrenberg 



Ursus syriacus Hemprich and Ehrenberg, Symbolae Physicae Mammalium, 

 decas prima, text to pi. 1, 1828. (Near the village of Bischerre, Mount 

 Makmel, Lebanon.) 



