In Europe the brown bear was common. We lost our bears around 3000 years ago but there are still descendents living in Europe today as well as in the North Pole. Genetic scientists from trinity college Dublin have through sampling bones from different parts of Europe found that the Irish bear is a direct ancestor of the polar bear. It all happened around 120,000 years when humans were a new species still living in Africa. This was a very warm period in history with hippos living in the river Rhine Germany and themes in London the sea levels were 4-6 meters higher than today. During these times the polar bears may have migrated to Ireland to find food as the Polar Regions had melted, fallen for the charms of an Irish bear and their off spring made their return to the pole during the next ice age.
Polar bears are thought to have evolved brown bears which may have drifted away on an ice sheet and had to 200,000 years ago. Probably the lighter coloured bears had a higher rate of survival so over years the brown bear bred and the brown became lighter and the colour till they became that off white we know today. Occasionally a polar bear will give birth to a partially brown bear a reminder of its ancestral past.
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