Ungulate Diets in the Lower Grand Canyon

Abstract

Plant fragments were identified and quantified by a microscopic examination of the dung of the burro, cattle, and bighorn in the western end of the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Genera of plants common to the diets of all three ungulates were: Sphaeralcea, Bromus, Tridens, Muhlenbergia, Acacia, Ephedra, Opuntia and Tidestromia. Wherever free ranging large herbivores occur, as in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, it is possible to study their diets by analysis of their dung. The diet of modern large herbivores can be compared with the unique Pleistocene record of ground sloth and extinct mountain goat dung preserved for over 11,000 years in adjacent caves.