Besides deer, the remains of other wild animals have also been documented in the different occupation surfaces of the rockshelter. These Palaeolithic groups lived long before the domestication of plants and animals was invented, thousands of years later, in regions of the Fertile Crescent, the Near East and Central America.
The main species included in the diet of the Lagar Velho groups are wild horse (Equus sp.), from which the equine species we know today evolved, the aurochs (Bos primigenius), the wild ancestor of cattle, now extinct all over the planet, Iberian goat (Capra pyrenaica), now at risk of extinction, chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), nowadays mainly found in the mountain ranges of the Alps and the Balkans, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), currently present in northern Portugal, and wild boar (Sus scrofa), commonly found in our landscapes. These animals mirror environments, landscapes and climatic conditions that were different from the present ones and characterised the late Pleistocene in the Lapedo Valley.
ANIMALS, A FOOD SOURCE
...and the hunted animals