1. Climate and wild game populations in South Scandinavia at Holocene Thermal Maximum

2. Average summer (red) and winter (blue) temperature anomalies reconstructed from pollen data in northeast Europe (after Davis et al. 2003).

3. Material red deer (Cervus elaphus) roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)
European elk (Alces alces)
aurochs (Bos primigenius)
wild boar (Sus scrofa)

4. Material 30 Mesolithic sites 9500 – 5500 calBP
Denmark & Southern Sweden
ca 9500 cal. BP
30 Mesolithic sites
9500 – 5500 calBP
1. Mullerup 2. Ulkestrup Lyng I & II 3. Holmegaard 4. Lundby I, Lundby II, Svaerdborg I & II 5. Tågerup 6. Löddeborg, Hög 7. Segebro, Arlöv I 8. Bökeberg III, Södra Lindved 9. Skateholm I & II 10. Bredasten 11. Nymölla III 12. Ageröd I:B, I:D, I:HC, III, V & Ringsjöholm.

5. Methods
Abundance of taxa based on relative frequency of NISP of different ungulates on sites with more than NISP of 100
Variations in body size are based on osteometrics analysis with measurements according to von den Driesch (1976) and Payne & Bull (1988)

6. Abundance of taxa

7. Abundance of taxa

8. Abundance of aurochs

9. Abundance of aurochs

10. Abundance of aurochs

11. Abundance of aurochs
Inland sites
Coastal sites

12. Abundance of elk
Coastal sites
Inland sites

13. Abundance of red deer

14. Abundance of roe deer

15. Abundance of wild boar

16. Osteometry
Measurements of red deer (Cervus elaphus) astragali (left) and humeri (right) in correlation with dating.

17. Osteometry
Measurements of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) astragali (left) and humeri (right) in correlation with dating.

18. Osteometry
Measurements of wild boar (Sus scrofa) astragali (left) and humeri (right) in correlation with dating.

19. Conclusions
Changes in abundance of ungulate taxa and in body size of red deer at thermal maximum
Changes probably not in direct relation to climate, but other factors are land-bridges and isolation of populations, vegetation and hunting.
Different taxa show different responses to climatic changes.
Difficult to predict how the wild game populations in South Scandinavia will react on global warming
Decrease of the elk population in relation to deer
Decreasing body size of deer, while wild boar may increase in size.