So far, she and her colleagues have only excavated two small test pits at the cave, which contained a number of stone artefacts, bone points, animal remains, shell beads and fish hooks.

How they ended up deep in a cave without other animal bones remains puzzling. But researchers hope other fossils still buried in the caves will provide some answers.

In 2006, a scientific team went to the haunt of the white bear, where they found a hibernation cave for bear and a tuft of white animal hair.