There is a reason there are no lions left in Europe, we killed them. We killed most wildlife and only recently we have tried to bring those somewhat large predators back(wolves, bears, etc).
I am pretty sure if there were polar bears in the Mediterranean, and the rest of the history remained the same, they would also be considered extinct or endangered.
All you need is a lot of humans and time and eventually all big animal threats will be eliminated.
They don’t have to be threatening, just big, and a good source of meat. Plenty of docile megafauna went extinct in places just as soon as humans arrived.
There is a reason there are no lions left in Europe, we killed them. We killed most wildlife and only recently we have tried to bring those somewhat large predators back(wolves, bears, etc).
I am pretty sure if there were polar bears in the Mediterranean, and the rest of the history remained the same, they would also be considered extinct or endangered.
All you need is a lot of humans and time and eventually all big animal threats will be eliminated.
They don’t have to be threatening, just big, and a good source of meat. Plenty of docile megafauna went extinct in places just as soon as humans arrived.