Cementum aged critters - Let’s see them..

[Frequently Banned Troll]

Yeah but I’m no tooth age expert. I do know that I thought it was a clearly old looking bull, by tooth wear and overall size, missing a waddle, and just other signs of having been an adult for more that a year or two.

 

[rogerthat]

Yeah but I’m no tooth age expert. I do know that I thought it was a clearly old looking bull, by tooth wear and overall size, missing a waddle, and just other signs of having been an adult for more that a year or two.

I’m just extrapolating what I know from deer and elk but 3 year old teeth on this are very sharp. Little to no wear. You would have noticed that

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

I’m just extrapolating what I know from deer and elk but 3 year old teeth on this are very sharp. Little to no wear. You would have noticed that

I’m pretty sure this was a case of misplaced teeth.

 

[Brad]

3

Crazy that hoss is only 3...

 

[rogerthat]

I’m pretty sure this was a case of misplaced teeth.

That happens. I sent some whitetail teeth in this year that I got from a retired wildlife biologist. When Matsons got them they called me and said we received these pronghorn teeth but you labeled them whitetail. called the bio and couldn’t sort it out. we will never know exactly what we aged lol.

 

[TheTone]

I don’t have any elk that I would consider big until there 5 and I have sent in quite a collection of elk. WR archery was 6.

I wonder if that bull lived a year or two more if he would have added some non typical stuff and thus not been the WR. Basically did he get shot as his maximum typical potential?

 

[Big Sky Guy]

4 year old Shiras moose I was referring to above. Even if you account for error being off by 1 year, at most this was a 5 y/o bull. Tooth came directly to me, not processed with any other moose teeth so all potential error sources for mix ups eliminated. Seemed crazy to me.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

I’m pretty sure this was a case of misplaced teeth.

Good example of why we recommend pulling two teeth or saving the jaw. I always tell folks to give one tooth to the agency and keep one or the jaw, just in case. If sending directly to us can send both in one envelope or hold onto one. Best way to resolve these potential discrepancies is to just process the second backup tooth.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

That happens. I sent some whitetail teeth in this year that I got from a retired wildlife biologist. When Matsons got them they called me and said we received these pronghorn teeth but you labeled them whitetail. called the bio and couldn’t sort it out. we will never know exactly what we aged lol.

Well we’ve received a human tooth labeled as a pronghorn before so that tracks. Probably a different agency, but I’ve never seen a wild critter with a porcelain crown .

The lab is also not immune to error but if teeth are sent mislabeled we are setup to fail and there’s not really anything we can do to figure out what happened aside from pointing out obvious ones where the species are incorrect like in your instance above. Sometimes it’s also the hunters intentionally or unintentionally setting up the agencies too if they decide to put a feral (or maybe just domestic) cat tooth in the envelope instead of a bobcat. Pretty obvious when we come across it. Or hunters putting two bear teeth from two different bears in one envelope and then stating how the state/lab doesn’t know chit from Cheyenne because their 500lb bear came back as a 2 year old. Collecting teeth across a statewide collection there are always going to be a lot of hands and each is a source of potential error.

 

[Brad]

Good example of why we recommend pulling two teeth or saving the jaw. I always tell folks to give one tooth to the agency and keep one or the jaw, just in case. If sending directly to us can send both in one envelope or hold onto one. Best way to resolve these potential discrepancies is to just process the second backup tooth.

Can you age an elk from its ivories?

 

[rogerthat]

Can you age an elk from its ivories?

Yes

 

[It’s Bucky]

I wonder if that bull lived a year or two more if he would have added some non typical stuff and thus not been the WR. Basically did he get shot as his maximum typical potential?

He was also shot early in the season before he could break anything off. Stars really aligned.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

Can you age an elk from its ivories?

Yes, we can provide age estimates from any tooth from pretty much any mammal you can kill or find. The I1's generally work the best for ungulates, but with elk the ivories are the tooth that biologists/researchers use from live-pull elk when they are doing collaring so those also seem to work well. If you want the crown back just specify that and pay the shipping back.