Is Utah teeth aging accurate ?

[HunterGatherer]

Utah requires elk hunters to send in teeth for aging so that they can determine age of the animals harvested to see if they are hitting management objectives for age. I sent my bull teeth off a few weeks ago.

4 years ago, I assisted some friends on a Utah elk hunters and they both killed nice bulls - one 320 and the other almost 340. They were clearly not the same age, based on teeth wear, but when the teeth aging results came back UDFW said they were both 6.5 yr old bulls, which maybe coincidentally is their management objective for that unit.

So the question is, do you think they really are reporting accurate aging on these tooth samples ? What have been your experiences with this ?

 

[Rogue Bay]

I know your question is specific to Utah and I have no experience with that but my hunting group of family and friends has sent teeth from all of our harvests here in Oregon for the last 6 years or so and one thing I’ve come to terms with is that tooth wear is not as good of an age indicator as I always believed. We’ve had a number of animals that had significantly different tooth wear patterns that were the same age.

For example, last year my wife and I both killed 5.5 year old blacktail bucks. The teeth on hers were as worn as I’ve seen on a deer but everything else about him indicated a buck in his prime. My buck was smaller but obviously mature and his teeth weren’t nearly as worn. I’ve seen this same variation several times. I also killed a 320+ bull that was 6.5 but had more tooth wear than my friend’s 355 bull. I believe feeding habits and genetics play a significant role in tooth wear, so I wouldn’t rule their aging results out based on that.

 

[realunlucky]

I know your question is specific to Utah and I have no experience with that but my hunting group of family and friends has sent teeth from all of our harvests here in Oregon for the last 6 years or so and one thing I’ve come to terms with is that tooth wear is not as good of an age indicator as I always believed. We’ve had a number of animals that had significantly different tooth wear patterns that were the same age.

For example, last year my wife and I both killed 5.5 year old blacktail bucks. The teeth on hers were as worn as I’ve seen on a deer but everything else about him indicated a buck in his prime. My buck was smaller but obviously mature and his teeth weren’t nearly as worn. I’ve seen this same variation several times. I also killed a 320+ bull that was 6.5 but had more tooth wear than my friend’s 355 bull. I believe feeding habits and genetics play a significant role in tooth wear, so I wouldn’t rule their aging results out based on that.

They can cut the tooth and get a very accurate age

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[realunlucky]

Utah requires elk hunters to send in teeth for aging so that they can determine age of the animals harvested to see if they are hitting management objectives for age. I sent my bull teeth off a few weeks ago.

4 years ago, I assisted some friends on a Utah elk hunters and they both killed nice bulls - one 320 and the other almost 340. They were clearly not the same age, based on teeth wear, but when the teeth aging results came back UDFW said they were both 6.5 yr old bulls, which maybe coincidentally is their management objective for that unit.

So the question is, do you think they really are reporting accurate aging on these tooth samples ? What have been your experiences with this ?

I believe in the past there was some concern over the actual aging of the elk teeth. If the percentage of bulls come in under age the number of permits can be adjusted.

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[Pacific_Fork]

You honestly think every animals teeth would age the same way, eating the same diet, carry the same genetics….or have you not thought this through all the way? Of course bulls could easily be the same age and not have identical teeth wear lol!

 

[Rogue Bay]

They can cut the tooth and get a very accurate age

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Absolutely. Way more reliable than guessing by the dentine ridges of the molars.