INFERENCIAS SOBRE LOS HABITOS ALIMENTICIOS DE UNA POBLACION DE VENADO DE COLA BLANCA Odocoileus virginianus cariacou A PARTIR DEL DESGASTE DENTAL EN UN AREA PROTEGIDA DE LA ORINOQUIA COLOMBIANA

In paleontology and also in archaeology, a direct comparison between the dentition of extant mammal species with known diets is currently used to infer the feeding habits of their ancient relatives. It is assumed, by analogy, that both species specialized in similar food, and determining the diet of a fossil mammal is helpful to identify the environmental context in which the animal inhabited. This type of approach allows us to know aspects of both the animals and the human groups that could benefit from hunting these animals, such as their behavior, environment, feeding preferences, and important events in their life history. At the same time, they provide a better knowledge of human palaeoecology, subsistence, and behavior. For these reasons, it is important to rely on modern data that allows this kind of approach. The aim of this paper is to establish baseline data to use in paleoecological studies from similar environments by studying the diet of an extant population of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus cariacou) from El Tuparro National Natural Park (PNN-El Tuparro) in Colombia. For this purpose, we used tooth mesowear and microwear as dietary proxies, which indicate the average annual diet and the diet at the time of death, respectively. The diet analysis of a deer extant population at the PNN-El Tuparro evidence that they consumed shrubs and herbs from both forests and savannas, but their diet changed seasonally. Tooth mesowear evidence of a grass-dominated diet in the last years of life and microwear browser diet at the moment of the death of the examined individuals.