#3095863 - 12/26/12 09:31 AM
Re: Best way to age a deer????
[Re: 102]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
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Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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I've never heard of measuring the thickness of the skull-plate as an aging technique.
The Severinghaus tooth wear and replacement aging method is the standard aging technique. However, it does only give you a good minimum ages, especially for the oldest deer (Hellickson's study on known-age deer versus the tooth-wear aging process found that most deer aged by toothwear to be 4 1/2+ are actually a year or two older).
I suspect diet probably does affect tooth-wear.
Cemmentum annuli works extremely well outside of the Southeast for aging deer. However, I question it in the Southeast, where severe summer droughts are common (which can produce two growth/dormancy rings per year).
Personally, I stick to toothwear most of the time. It may under-age the oldest deer, but it does so consistantly, hence produces accurate trend data.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#3095978 - 12/26/12 10:25 AM
Re: Best way to age a deer????
[Re: 102]
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Winchester
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Registered: 12/05/03
Posts: 25229
Loc: TN
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Teeth, but not by looking, cementum anuli (SP?). This is a process where a cross section of the tooth is used to determine age.
Aging by looking can be subjective after a deer reaches a certain age. I have seen three different age guesses on the same deer from three different "experts".
On the money, closest way to get an accurate age.
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