Kletno Bear Cave ( pl, Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie) is the longest cave located in the

Śnieżnik Mountains The Snieznik Mountains, sometimes also Śnieżnik Mountains ( pl, Masyw Śnieżnika, cs, Králický Sněžník, german: Glatzer Schneegebirge) are a massif in the Eastern Sudetes on the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. On the Polish side ...

, which are part of the greater Sudeten mountain range. It was discovered in 1966, near the village of Kletno in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is famous for its many excavations of the

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ' ...

(''Ursus spelaeus'').

History

The first of the cave was discovered in October 1966 during the mining process in the newly established quarry Kletno III. In 1967, new corridors were discovered, including the middle parts ''Sale pałacowe'' ("Palace Halls"), and, in January 1972, the lowest parts were discovered. New parts of the cave were uncovered in the years 2014 to 2015. In total, the cave has a length of over and is currently the longest cave in the

Sudetes The Sudetes ( ; pl, Sudety; german: Sudeten; cs, Krkonošsko-jesenická subprovincie), commonly known as the Sudeten Mountains, is a geomorphological subprovince in Central Europe, shared by Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. They consis ...

Geography

The cave is situated on the right side of the valley of the stream Kleśnica in the

, a part of the

. The cave is located at 790 m above sea level on the slopes of Góra Stroma mountain (1,166.8 m).

Fossil animal remnants

Rich bone material of

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

animals was found inside the cave, including mostly

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

such as

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

, cave lion,

hyena Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

, and others. Bones of

were dominant among the bone material, making up almost 90% of all the excavated bones.

Gallery

File:Szkic nowoodkrytych partii Jaskini Niedźwiedziej.gif, Map of the cave File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, pawilon wejściowy 01.JPG, Entry to the Bear Cave pavillon File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, pawilon wejściowy 03.jpg, Exposition inside the pavillon with skeletons of cave lion and

File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szkielet niedźwiedzia jaskiniowego 01.JPG, Cave bear skeleton inside the pavillon File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie 01.jpg, Natural entry to the cave File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 08.jpg, Speleothemes inside the cave File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 14.JPG,

Stalagnate A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

s File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 19.JPG File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 26.jpg,

Stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

s File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 15.JPG,

Stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

s File:2015 Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie, szata naciekowa 11.jpg, Cascades

References

Bibliography

*Praca Zbiorowa, "Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie. Badanie i udostępnianie", Polska Akademia Nauk, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1989, . with summary. * ''Jaskinie Sudetów'' praca zbiorowa pod red. Mariana Puliny, Polskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk o Ziemi, Warszawa 1996, . * ''Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie. 40 lat eksploracji, badań, ochrony i turystyki'' praca zbiorowa pod red. Wojciecha Ciężkowskiego, Wydawnictwo "Maria", Wrocław-Kletno 2006, .

External links

Official website of the cave.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kletno Bear Cave Limestone caves Show caves in Poland Caves of Poland Tourist attractions in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Kłodzko County Landforms of Lower Silesian Voivodeship