Deer aging quiz and other articles

[Not the first]

I came upon this deer aging quiz put out by the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma. They have a number of articles listed and several mention that they had some know age deer that were aged by various wildlife experts and they discovered that most over 1.5 years of age were inaccurate. I may not be able to provide a link, due to limited computer skills, but if not, maybe someone could post a followup with a good link.


Here is the deer aging quiz, good luck, I was 50%, mainly on long yearlings

http://www.noble.org/Ag/Wildlife/DeerJawAging/quiz_content.html

And here is the base list of articles on wildlife, etc, many of which are helpful

http://www.noble.org/ag/research/wildlife.htm

[Not the first]

So is this old news, or is nobody up for the challenge of the quiz? I linked the first page, you have to go thru several introductory pages to get to the quiz, but the pictures of the jawbones are good quality and can be rotated to view from different angles Come on, what else is there to do in the offseason?

[Cuz]

I got 5 of 10. I do my aging by body though...

[Eason]

Neat deal, but it seems to show the varibility it tooth wear for age classes, not what the majority of deer in each age class will show. I always look at tooth wear, body characteristics, and antler characteristics to estimate age on bucks.

[Oz_Ag]

Wish it told you the answers after you miss one. I think I was under aging all of them. They show very little tooth wear compared to the ones I'm used to looking at.

[muley4x4]

Wow tough quiz.

[JMG]

I got 5/10 but like above, I wish they woud tell you what the answers were. The oldest I got was 4 1/2 from the pixs. Not like what I see.

[Not the first]

If you read their discussion, at least applying it to the deer in their study, most people were underestimating the age of the deer by jawbone. I have generally found that to be the case in our area as well, as certain bucks I was fairly certain were older than 3.5 showed toothwear more consistent with 2.5-3.5 year old deer on the charts. I know the charts were set up based on a large volume of deer, but at least in my limited experience at our place I would tend to agree more with the Noble study. However, since I am not always working with known age deer I can not be certain, so there is some doubt involved as well. Wish those wild deer came with born on dates to eliminate all the confusion! Oh well, then we would not have anything to argue over back at the camphouse.

I will try to find time to go thru the quiz enough times to get the correct answers for each one and post a cheat sheet later on.

[JMG]

There study is correct in most people underestimate the age on tooth wear. From their study, all you could really gather is fawn, yearling, and older. It's the older where it gets tricky and you can't go by tooth wear for an exact age. On our place, I have seen 6.5yo bucks with wear like a 4.5yo and others that are almost worn flat.

[Muddy Bud]

I got 5/10 to and I also do my aging on the hoof, If you have to age by teeth its usually to late anyway.