Paleodiet Reconstruction of Procapra Przewalskii from the Qinghai Lake Basin During the Early and Middle Holocene

Reconstructions of food choices of species in the past can help us understand ecological relationships between ancient populations and their environments and contextualize recent anthropogenic impacts on those species to inform wildlife management practices today. Przewalski's gazelles ( Procapra przewalskii), for example, were ubiquitous on the Tibetan Plateau during the Early and Middle Holocene but today are limited to a small, endangered population in the Qinghai Lake Basin. Environmental conditions have changed dramatically since the end of the Pleistocene, and recent human activity has also had noticeable impacts on the population dynamics of these gazelles. This study employs isotope analyses and dental microwear to reconstruct the diets of P. przewalskii specimens from the Epipaleolithic archaeological site, 151, in the Qinghai Lake Basin (dated to 8900-7900 cal. BP). Microwear textures are compared with modern Przewalski's gazelles from the basin and with a baseline of bovids with diets ranging from obligate browse to obligate graze. Stable isotopes confirm a diet for the archaeological samples dominated by C3 plants, which is unsurprising given a drop in C4 grass availability since the Early Holocene and a diet of both browse and C3 grasses for modern P. przewalskii in the basin. The microwear textures of the archaeological (n = 10) and modern (n = 5) P. przewalskii specimens are consistent with a graze-dominated diet, as reported in the literature for recent Przewalski's gazelles. While P. przewalskii has been a target prey species for people in the basin since the Paleolithic, the gazelle population has only recently declined to near-extinction level, due largely to the intensification of human activities. This decline has evidently not been driven by a change in feeding behavior despite dramatic habitat change, hunting pressure, and competition with domesticated animals. Understanding this can help governments to develop more suitable and effective strategies to protect this endangered species.