The Atlas bear, a now extinct subspecies of brown bear, was once found in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Researchers have found that the Atlas bear had different names in different languages and cultures. In Berber language, it was referred to as the "Adar" which means "mountain beast". The Romans called it "Macros", which means "big" or "large". The Arabic name was "Makrouna" which means "with a long neck" while the French called it "l'Ours de l'Atlas" or simply "The Atlas Bear". Despite the variations in its name, the Atlas bear was an important species in North Africa's ecology and its extinction is a tragedy.