Diets of free-roaming wild horses, domestic cattle, and mule deer were estimated for three altitudinally different vegetation zones in the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado. Wild horses and cattle ate mostly grasses and sedges in each of the vegetation zones. Mule deer diets consisted primarily of browse. Wild horse and cattle diets compared within a vegetation zone were more similar to each other than diets of a single herbivore compared between vegetation zones. The percentages of the diets of wild horses and cattle that were identical ranged from 59% to 75% in the three vegetation zones. Diet overlap of wild horses or cattle with mule deer was always less than 11%. The diversities of plants on the diets were lower for mule deer than for cattle or wild horses. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.