“…We sampled faunal remains from the occupations of 10 Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Massif Central: Vigne‐Brun in the Loire Valley (Digan, 2003; Digan et al, 2008), Grotte des Fées (Delporte, 1955; Zilhão et al, 2008), Blanzat (Pomerol, 1888; Surmely et al, 2008), Le Bay (Surmely, 2000; Angevin and Surmely, 2013), Pont de Longues (Surmely, 1998; Fontana, 2000a), Lépétade‐Chabasse (Angevin and Surmely, 2013) and Thônes‐Auzary (Delporte, 1970; Surmely, 2000) in the Limagne plain in the Allier river valley, Abri du Rond (Boule and Vernière, 1899; Delporte and Virmont, 1983; Fontana et al, 2018; Delvigne et al, 2019) and Le Blot (Delporte, 1966; Bosselin, 1992; Chauvière and Fontana, 2005; Surmely and Hays, 2011; Delvigne et al, 2019) further south in the Allier river valley, and, at a comparable latitude, Cottier (Evin, 1976; Lafarge, 2014) in the Loire river Valley (Figure 1). We selected bone and tooth samples of reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus , n = 25), horse ( Equus sp., n = 49), ibex ( Capra ibex , n = 6) and wolf ( Canis lupus , n = 2) from the occupation levels attributed to the Châtelperronian, Early and Final Gravettian, Badegoulian and Magdalenian cultural periods (Table 1).…”