Assessment of variability among diets of individual deer with the aid of canonical analysis

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Abstract
Canonical analysis was compared with dissimilarity indices for evaluating the food niche of mule deer. Significant differences were found among individual deer primarily in their predilection for shrubs and secondarily in their selection of forbs or grasses. Patterns of selection changed with plant communities, reflecting changing availabilities and possibly associative affects of individual food items. Diets also changed from winter to spring particularly in the relative contribution of forbs. Canonical analysis proved useful for identifying changes in the food niche since, as a multivariate technique, it evaluated complete diets and obviated univariate analysis of each dietary component.

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