Tibetan red deer () diet composition patterns and associations during lean seasons in Tibet, China.

Tibetan red deer () in the high-altitude environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau could face seasonal challenges from food shortages and nutritional deficiencies but the nutritional requirements are complex. Analyzing diet composition pattern(s) is the first step to disentangle this complexity. From a systematic perspective, we hypothesize that: (A) diet composition pattern or patterns exist within the population and (B) a portion of the diet beyond characterized diet combinations will consist of random combinations.