Just for fun, lets see what folks say the age of this deer is (or was). I've gotten ages from three professional biologists. I'll share their answers here tomorrow. Three jawbone pics and a trail cam pic just a few days before he died.
Age This Deer
- Thread starter rsimms
- Start date
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
atypical wear pattern, but if you average out the excessive wear on M1, with the comparable less wear on m3, it would put him at 5.5.
He looks like a south MS buck!
He looks like a south MS buck!
@fulldraw
Well-Known Member
I agree. It appeared abnormal wear to me too. My guess was 5+.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
From tooth wear I can see 5.5 but wouldnt have guessed 5.5 from trail cam pic.
backstraps
Well-Known Member
Wear looks 4.5 to me. The trail cam pic isn't the best for estimation but I could possibly see 4.5 in the pic as well
^^^^^This
Okay, I have shared the jawbone photos with four different professional wildlife biologists with great experience aging Tennessee whitetails. Three of the four aged the deer at 4.5, one of them aged it at 5.5. So most all of you did good.
Personally, I would have estimated older, but my jawbone aging experience (as a game warden) was decades ago. And back then (when folks shot anything with antlers) it was extremely unusual for us to see a deer beyond 2.5, so even then my experience aging older deer was non-existent.
Personally, I would have estimated older, but my jawbone aging experience (as a game warden) was decades ago. And back then (when folks shot anything with antlers) it was extremely unusual for us to see a deer beyond 2.5, so even then my experience aging older deer was non-existent.
BTW, some referenced atypical wear pattern. Here is a picture of his upper left jaw. He clearly needed to see a dentist and is likely the reason for atypical wear pattern?
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
In all likelihood that broken tooth did not cause the atypical wear on the lower jaw. He just preferred to chew a food bolus toward the front instead of toward the back of his jaw. That's why the wear on the first molar was excessive. If you were to just pull the 1st molar and tell someone to age the buck with only that one tooth, anyone with experience would say 5.5, possibly 6.5. If you were to pull the 3rd molar and look at it with no other teeth to compare to, one would say 4.5.
Noticing nuances like that are part of the 'art' of aging jawbones, rather than just the textbook instructions of 'look at 1st molar, then 2nd molar, then 3rd molar....'
wobblegobble
Well-Known Member
looks no older than 4
I haven't checked to see the responses or if you have posted what the biologist said...at least 6.5.
I say this because I have a mount of a buck that has the exact tooth wear and photos of him making him at least 6 years old. He had a very distinctive rack making it easy to recognize back to 1.5yrs.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
Those rotten and broken teeth had to cause pain. It's amazing the survival of these deer in spite of their injuries. He's at least 5.5 yo.
Good thread. Agree with 5.5+, fully mature.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Also...many say tooth wear age estimates should be considered a minimum age....I'm sticking with 5.5
Answer (according to biologists) was posted previously: https://www.tndeer.com/threads/age-this-deer.477552/post-6329922
I've seen another deer multiple times in the last month or two that has a grossly swollen front left foot. It looks like he's walking around on a grapefruit. He limps when he walks and when I've seen him feeding in a field, I've watched him stand in the exact same spot, nipping on every blade of grass he can reach, for LENGTHY periods. It seems obvious he doesn't want to move/walk except when he has to. But I walked out to try and get photos of him once and he ran like the wind. I sure wouldn't have been tell he was hurting based on how well he ran.
It reminds me of the DH Lawrence poem used in the movie, G.I. Jane:
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.
