Ungulate niche partitioning and behavioural plasticity of aurochs in Early Holocene southern Scandinavia revealed by stable isotope analysis of bone collagen

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the extensive climatic and environmental changes associated with the Early Holocene on the feeding ecology of aurochs, European bison, red deer, and Eurasian elk in southern Scandinavia from radiocarbon dates and analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Molecular sex information is utilised in the study of aurochs to understand the underlying reasons behind observed intraspecific differences. Asynchronous diachronic changes in dietary palaeoecology were observed between the included taxa. The observed trends in foraging and habitat use among herbivores in our dataset can be attributed to the directional vegetation change from open landscape to forest. Our findings imply that environmental changes and/or interspecific competition contributed to the local extinction of European bison and impacted the niches of remaining species through niche overlap (cervids) and partitioning (between cervids and aurochs). Thus, our observations are consistent with the influence of multiple mechanisms that acted concurrently.