It has been claimed that bears once roamed Dartmoor, an area of moorland in south Devon. Earlier, archaeologists found a fur pelt in an ancient burial chamber.

The fur pelt has been verified by experts. Archaeologists found the pelt to be of a brown bear in the Bronze Age granite cist on the moor in 2011.

According to curator of Plymouth Museum, Fiona Pitt, it is possible that bears lived in Dartmoor.

Archaeologists found the grave in a peat bog on White Horse Hill. They have found a woven basket in the grave that was well preserved. Apart from that, Amber beads were found in the grave, which shows that a human of high social stature was buried there.

Some artifacts found in the grave were wrapped in the pelt. To test the pelt, English Heritage, Natural or Cultural Preservation Agency, employed experts from Smithsonian Institute in the US. The experts will test the pelt using a process called peptide mass fingerprinting.

Science advisor of English Heritage, Vanessa Straker, said that the right technique to examine the pelt will take some time.

She said, "We thought it would be one of the easiest finds to identify, it looked very well preserved, but these things are so rarely preserved at all that we have little experience of working on them".

According to Vanessa, bears were once spread around Britain. There are around 200 burial cists on Dartmoor. The area of moorland has provided handful secrets before because of grave robbing.

Vanessa said Dartmoor is the only site that has been excavated in 100 years. She said the items found in Dartmoor provide a glimpse of Bronze Age in southern England.