The seasonal foods selected by wild horses, cattle,
elk, domestic sheep, and antelope on the Red Desert in southwestern
Wyoming were determined by microscopic inspection of
fecal material. A large percentage of the diets of wild horses,
cattle, and elk were the same species of grasses and sedges. Wheatgrass
and needlegrass each made up 11 to 46% of the average
annual diets of the herbivores studied except antelope. Sagebrush
was the major food in antelope diets regardless of season. Saltbush
was an important food in each herbivore’s seasonal diet and was
the major food of domestic sheep each season except summer.
Each herbivore species ate a variety of plants each season, but the
majority of the diet within a season usually consisted of fewer than
six major plant species.