The Atlas bear was the North African bear subspecies that went extinct in the late nineteenth century, with its last recorded killing in 1870.
Known scientifically as Ursus arctos crowtheri, it was a population or subspecies of brown bear native to Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It lived in the Atlas Mountains and nearby regions and was Africa’s only bear known to survive into modern historical times. Descriptions portray it as a stocky, dark-coated bear with reddish-orange fur on its underparts.
Over-hunting, including hunts conducted after the spread of modern firearms, played a major role in its decline. The bear probably had a broadly omnivorous diet like other brown bears, eating plant foods such as roots, acorns, and nuts as well as meat or carrion.
“Brown bear” is not a competing answer: the Atlas bear is generally classified within that species. The exact extinction date is somewhat uncertain, because some nineteenth-century reports lack physical confirmation, but Atlas bear is the canonical answer.