Ah, Europe had lions, too, up until the Roman era. Those lions on European heraldry are NOT African lions, but native European ones, that, yes, looked more or less just like the African sort (with maned males, and tufts on their tails), just like the Asiatic lion does (it's endangered/rare, but I saw one at the Sydney Zoo about 25 years ago.) Anyway, they're all one species, once widespread, but now people think of it as just "African". Sad. And yes, those were European lions getting fed to the Roman death entertainment complex.
As for bears, they were mostly wiped out early, too (with the white marine bears chased to the remote north. When North America was first discovered, fur-trading sea captains made note of the "many beares", that they described in all three colours (brown, black and white) as far south as Maine - they're cold WATER bears, not "snow and ice" bears, but they were similarly chased to the far north by 1800, and thus started being misnamed "polar" bears.)
Hunter-gatherers simply don't tend to be as aggressive about wiping out rival predators as farmer-herders are, at least, not without some incentive (such as the industrial fur and hide trade); stone-age humans probably mostly outcompeted the large (over 100 lbs adult weight avg) predators rather than aggressively genociding them, like the ongoing genocide against the wild wolf/coyote by higher-tech peoples.)
Ah, Europe had lions, too, up until the Roman era. Those lions on European heraldry are NOT African lions, but native European ones, that, yes, looked more or less just like the African sort (with maned males, and tufts on their tails), just like the Asiatic lion does (it's endangered/rare, but I saw one at the Sydney Zoo about 25 years ago.) Anyway, they're all one species, once widespread, but now people think of it as just "African". Sad.
As for bears, they were mostly wiped out early, too (with the white marine bears chased to the remote north. When North America was first discovered, fur-trading sea captains made note of the "many beares", that they described in all three colours (brown, black and white) as far south as Maine - they're cold WATER bears, not "snow and ice" bears, but they were similarly chased to the far north by 1800, and thus started being misnamed "polar" bears.)
Hunter-gatherers simply don't tend to be as aggressive about wiping out rival predators as farmer-herders are, at least, not without some incentive (such as the industrial fur and hide trade); stone-age humans probably mostly outcompeted the large (over 100 lbs adult weight avg) predators rather than aggressively genociding them, like the ongoing genocide against the wild wolf/coyote by higher-tech peoples.)