That ecological diversity was, for a Neanderthal hunter-gatherer community, a resource.

The valleys of the Zagros supported large herds of red deer, wild goat, wild sheep, aurochs, and wild boar — the primary prey animals whose bones appear throughout the Shanidar Cave deposits.

The rivers draining the mountains carried fish and supported the plant communities whose seeds and fruits supplemented the diet.

The mountain slopes themselves offered a variety of plant species at different seasons, so that a community moving vertically through the landscape over the course of a year could access food resources that a community confined to a single elevation could not.

Shanidar Cave was positioned to exploit this vertical diversity.