Bergman's bear

Bergman's bear (Ursus arctos piscator) is an alleged and most likely extinct subspecies of the brown bear which lived in the southern Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia.

Taxonomy
Bergman's bear was first described by Sten Bergman in 1936; he had seen a Kamchatkan bear skin of abnormally large proportions in 1920. It is often referred to the trinomen Ursus arctos piscator which is now a synonym of the Kamchatka brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus).

However, given its unusual appearance, some people propose that Bergman's bear represents an relict population of short-faced bears (Arctodus simus). This ursid is believed to have become extinct 11,000 years ago. This was a theory perpetuated by N.K. Vereshchagin, a Russian biologist who received a description of 'Irkuiem' from hunter Rodion Sivolobov. However, this theory was met with criticism as the physical appearance of Arctodus did not match the 'trousers pulled down' description given by the Kamchatka natives, and Arctodus was endemic to North America.

Description
Based on the holotype, this bear was coated in short, black hair, which differed from the long, brown fur of the Kamchatka brown bear. It was also incredibly large, with an estimated weight of. Its skull was also poignant in its large size. Its footprints measured 14.5 inch by 10 inch.

1960s
Hunter Rodion Sivolobov reported claims of a large bear Kamchatka natives called Irkuiem (roughly meaning 'trousers pulled down', which references the distant appearance of the bear's hind legs), or Kainyn-Kutho ('God bear') due to its immense size.

These natives described a large bear with forelimbs longer than its hind limbs and a large bulge of fat between its hind legs, hence the 'trousers pulled down' name. The hunter also claimed that, due to the introduction of rifles and fire-arms into the area, the bear's population was declining.