2012 elk and antelope ages posted on CDFW

[DFGELK]

All,

The elk and antelope tooth age data is now posted on line at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/elk/tooth/2012/ and http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/pronghorn/tooth/2012.html. We got the results back early this year. Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions 916-445-9992 or jhobbs@dfg.ca.gov

Thanks

Joe

 

[Navy SWO]

Thanks for the link. That was interesting. I went back a couple of years and found the age of the cow I took at FHL. From her size and the fact that she was pregnant I would have thought the cow I took was 3 - 4 years old. In reality, she was listed as 1 (or 1.5 I would assume) which kind of surprised me. How do you use the age data for your herd management?

 

[DFGELK]

It is one way to track "type" of harvest. In hunts with more than a couple of tags it allows us to look at what is being harvested by age class. So if we are only seeing 1 or 2 year olds then that could be an indicator of maybe something is wrong, why no older age cows being harvested. If only older cows are being harvested then we have to look at that as well. What we like to see is an across the board age class of animals harvested. I also look at trends over time, is the avg age increasing, decreasing, etc. But you have to take into account the number of teeth reported. It is not out of the question to have a 1.5 year old cow that is pregnant, unusual yes but has happened in tule elk from time to time. The other thing I could look at is the accuracy of the aging, they give a grade for each tooth on how accurate they think the analysis was. e-mail me your info and I will look it up. Typically on a 1.5 year old they are right on but can see what grade they gave it. Most are high grades or accurate analysis of the tooth.

Jhobbs@dfg.ca.gov

Thanks

Joe

 

[6x7]

Thanks for posting my antelope in 11 was 6 years old

 

[DFGELK]

Definitely on the older side for antelope harvested, most tend to be younger.

Joe

 

[6x7]

My pal drew last year his goat was a two year old his was a lot more massive than mine I guess age dosent mean much for antelope horn size

 

[CaliDuckPro]

The Northeastern antlerless shows a 5x5 Bull was harvested...

 

[DFGELK]

yep, not sure what happened there but that was what was reported. I do not know what law enforcement did with that one.

Joe