Mule Deer Age Thread

[go_deep]

Years ago when I lived in Wisconsin we had all our jaws aged.
It was very interesting, 100" buck 5.5 years old, health looking 100# doe that we thought was a 1.5 was 10+, a 200" nontypical a mere 3.5 year old.
Sending my first mule deer jaw in this year, excited to add more data here in the future.

 

[S.Clancy]

great point. Molar tooth-wear aging is not as accurate. I tested it on my taxi. unknowing to him. He'd always tell me what the age was by the molars, then I'd lab age the incisors-- he was never right--off at least a year and I think this was over 3 bucks.

Molar tooth-wear aging is for a rough estimate IMO

100%. Molar aging is good for "bracketing" bucks into young (1.5 - 2.5), prime age (3.5 - 5.5) and older (6.5+).

The below bucks are what I'm talking about. Notice the difference in molar wear between them.

***The younger (top) buck had a noticeably larger body than the older buck***

 

[go_deep]

100%. Molar aging is good for "bracketing" bucks into young (1.5 - 2.5), prime age (3.5 - 5.5) and older (6.5+).

The below bucks are what I'm talking about. Notice the difference in molar wear between them.

***The younger (top) buck had a noticeably larger body than the older buck***
View attachment 974162View attachment 974163View attachment 974165View attachment 974164

What's the age on these two?

 

[Pistolpete28]

Or the samples got mixed up at the lab. I think your assessment of the 3.5 guess is much more likely, maybe even 2.5. One picture is hard to judge but that face, skull to ear ratio and nice complete ears doesn’t look like any old buck I’ve seen.

I have a hard time believing he’s 2.5, after I saw his missing teeth. He also had big antler peticles like his antlers carried more mass at some point in his life.

 

[Pistolpete28]

He also had very large ears, the teeth could of definitely got mixed up at the lab, but this buck definitely made me scratch my head.

 

[freezerfull]

View attachment 974190View attachment 974192I have a hard time believing he’s 2.5, after I saw his missing teeth. He also had big antler peticles like his antlers carried more mass at some point in his life.

More photos definitely help. I still would lean on that 3.5 assessment you initially did.

Molar wear variation can be dependent on Browse and environment. Were the teeth broken or just straight up rotted out?

Cementum aging is clearly the best predictor of age but there have been many documented discrepancies that I wouldn’t be shocked if this was the case here.

 

[S.Clancy]

What's the age on these two?

I believe 4.5 and 6.5

 

[S.Clancy]

View attachment 974190View attachment 974192I have a hard time believing he’s 2.5, after I saw his missing teeth. He also had big antler peticles like his antlers carried more mass at some point in his life.

See link below, the last pre-molar is pretty indicative of a 2.5 yr old.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/media/31636/download?inline

 

[Pistolpete28]

See link below, the last pre-molar is pretty indicative of a 2.5 yr old.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/media/31636/download?inline

Interesting thanks for sharing

 

[Pistolpete28]

More photos definitely help. I still would lean on that 3.5 assessment you initially did.

Molar wear variation can be dependent on Browse and environment. Were the teeth broken or just straight up rotted out?

Cementum aging is clearly the best predictor of age but there have been many documented discrepancies that I wouldn’t be shocked if this was the case here.

They were broken, and rolled out