| Summary: | Barová Cave is located in the middle part of the Moravian Karst (Czech Republic) on the right slope of Josefovské Valley. The cave was discovered by A. Sobol in 1947. In 2011 the landslide exposed new, unprospected fossiliferous sediments inside the cave. The bone remains of following taxa have been discovered in bigger amount until now, throughout our research 2011–2017: bear of the cave bear group (Ursus ex gr. spelaeus, thousands of bones), cave lion (Panthera spelaea, hundreds of bones), wolf (Canis lupus, hundreds of bones), cave hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea, tens of bones). Just only single bones were found from these taxa: brown bear (Ursus arctos), lynx (Lynx lynx), wolverine (Gulo gulo), red fox (Vulpes cf. vulpes), marten (Martes cf. martes), ibex (Capra ibex), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), aurochs or steppe bison (Bos seu Bison), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), horse (Equus sp.), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), hare (Lepus sp.), lemming (Dicrostonyx sp.), red vole (Clethrionomys sp.), jackdaw (Corvus monedula) and presumably pintail (Anas aff. acuta). This paper summarizes findings about bone material from sectors 2, 3, 4 and R4, Pod žebříkem (Under the Ladder) test pit. Bones of bears from the cave bear group were the most abundant there (95%), with distance followed the bones of cave lion (3%), wolf (1.2%) and cave hyena (0.5%), several bone remains belonged to 8 other taxa: chamois, red deer, reindeer, horse, lemming, red vole, marten and jackdaw. From MNI point of view bears from the cave bear group were also clearly dominant (70%). All age categories and both sexes of bears from the cave bear group occurred there. The moderate occurrence of gnawed, chewed or bitten bones suggests that cave lions, hyenas and wolves scavenged on bear bones or carcases or hunted on wintering bears. Large amount of bones shows, that bears of the cave bear group wintered in Barová cave for at least thousand of years.
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