Guess the age of this Elk ?

[Gutshot007]

Went with my son from North Dakota on a cow elk hunt last fall. He just got a letter from fish/ game with some info on the cow elk he shot including age from tooth/ jaw sample. Any guesses ?

 

[sndmn11]

Adult

 

[Geewhiz]

2 1/2

 

[One-shot]

12

 

[cnelk]

She’s got a fairly long nose so I’d say 8-9 years

 

[P dog]

I shot one years ago in the TR National Park that looked just like her and she was 12...this was on the herd reduction hunt.

I'm guessing 12

 

[Justinb34]

Looks a little long in the hoof I would guess 10 to 14

 

[Nickofthewoods]

37 or 38?

 

[Laramie]

Very tough to gauge from a pic but she looks old. 10+ would be my guess.

 

[Gutshot007]

Quick factoid. Average age of elk harvested in North Dakota is 4.5 years old

 

[Rob5589]

9.5

 

[Marble]

Pretty tough with that photo.

From what I see it's an adult. It has the look of almost very young or very old.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Gutshot007]

 

[Gutshot007]

That old gal was 15 1/2 YEARS OLD by tooth analysis !

 

[wind gypsy]

Big ol belly on her. Was she…. Gutshot?

 

[Gutshot007]

Cooking back straps over charcoal and red oak. Pretty rare. I thought ,man this is tough for back straps. Roast in crockpot throw that meat in there for another 12 hours . Now I know why ! What's amazing is that animal made through 15.5 years of harsh North Dakota winters . They're tough

 

[Gutshot007]

Big ol belly on her. Was she…. Gutshot?

Nope . Right through the "boiler room". She was just a" full figured gal". Pics didnt do justice. Thing was the size of a quarter horse. Lol

 

[Gerbdog]

Guess the question is... how does a 15.5 year old cow elk taste? Honestly curious, that's old for an elk

 

[5MilesBack]

I was going to say 16 even before I saw the pic. 16 seems to be that "old age" number for cows from my experience. However that pic doesn't really show much for determining age or size. Looks like a small cow in that pic.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

After reading this thread it made me think of the podcast Newberg did with Matsons lab out of Manhattan Montana. Sounds like these folks age all sorts of animals for game & fish departments across the US and world... think they have aged over 2million animals to date . Here's a link to the oldest animals they have aged.. Thought this was very interesting !!

The Oldest Animals In The World Aged At - Matson's Laboratory

Matson’s Lab has aged some of the oldest animals in the world. Check out the ages of the oldest animals ever aged at Matson’s!

matsonslab.com