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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Ecology of two sympatric cervids from Spain: confronting data from stomach contents and dental microwear texture

Résumé

The red deer, Cervus elaphus is characterized by a plastic diet that varies depending on resource availability in its habitat (Gebert and Verheyden-Tixier, 2001). On the other hand, the fallow deer Dama dama is reported to predominantly eat grass – and acorns whenever available whether in cold and humid or warm and dry habitats (Jackson, 1977, Azorit et al., 2012). The Spanish locality Luegar Nuevo (Fig.1) is characterized by a dry summer which constitutes a constraint season for the two sympatric cervid populations (Azorit et al., 2012). In this study, we focus on diet to explore the ecological relationships between the two populations under these extreme conditions. Dental microwear texture analysis (Scott et al., 2006), the study of the microscopic wear caused by food during mastication, has proven to be very efficient in deciphering both inter- and intra-specific variations in diet (Merceron et al., 2010). Efforts are focused on the shearing facet of the lower second molars (Fig.1). The results are compared with the rumen content analysis based on the very same specimens (Azorit et al., 2012). We show that the red deer are highly grazer (high anisotropy, low complexity), while the fallow deer combine intermediate complexity and lower anisotropy suggesting a more browsing diet (Fig.1). Notably, at the peak of the grass consumption for the two species (from May to August, before the occurrence of fruit in their diet), we highlight significant differences in the dental microwear signal. These results lead to the conclusion that conversely to the rumen contents, DMTA supports a more abrasive and tough alimentation (possibly herbaceous monocots) for the red deer compared with the fallow deer. In summary, the two species seem to occupy different micro-habitats with Dama in places where grasses are less abrasive and less tough than the place where Cervus grazes. Bibliography: [1] Azorit C, Tellado S, Oya A et al. (2012) Anim. Prod. Sci. 52: 720–727. [2] Calandra I, Merceron G (2016) Mammal Rev. in press. [3] Gebert C, Verheyden-Tixier H (2001) Mammal Rev. 31: 189–201. [4] Jackson J (1977) J. Zool. 181: 465–473. [5] Merceron G, Escarguel G, Angibault J-M et al. (2010). PLoS ONE 5: e9542. [6] Scott RS, Ungar P, Bergstrom TS et al. (2006) J. Hum. Evol. 51: 339–349
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hal-03908786 , version 1 (20-01-2023)

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Emilie Berlioz, Concepción Azorit, Cécile Blondel, Gildas Merceron. Ecology of two sympatric cervids from Spain: confronting data from stomach contents and dental microwear texture. 5th International Conference on Surface Metrology, Poznan University of Technology, Poland, Apr 2016, Poznan, Poland. pp.38-39. ⟨hal-03908786⟩
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