aging elk

[elknut]

I am always curious about the age of an animal I harvest, particularly an elk. Can you guess the age of this bull by these ivories? I know that to accurately age an animal you need to cross section the canines and count the rings, which I am doing but this is a quick way to get a rough age.



http://fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/brochure_elk.html#male

 

[Mudranger1]

11 maybe?

 

[grizzly5028]

If you have the jaw bone you can approximate the age of the elk by tooth wear and the numbers of teeth present. Some DOW have charts to help you age them or you can do a quick google search for aging elk by using its jaw bone

 

[grizzly5028]

P.S. if you are going to count rings accurately you need a light microscope (personal experience on thins one) Good luck counting!

 

[recoil junky]

Rings mean nothing in ivories, except they make them "look cool". Ivories wear at different rate due to any number of causes, diet, climate.

The lower jaw, like grizz said. is really the only way to tell how old any critter is.

RJ