Sika age from teeth? (big photo so quite bandwidth heavy)

caorach

Well-Known Member
Would anyone care to suggest the age of this sika hind based upon the photo of her teeth below:

hindteethfull.jpg


This isn't a trick question in that I've no idea at all how old she is, nor how to work it out, so if anyone willing to have a try at it could also say how they reached their conclusion then I'd be grateful for the info and insight.
 
Re: Sika age from teeth? (big photo so quite bandwidth heavy

caorach said:
Would anyone care to suggest the age of this sika hind based upon the photo of her teeth below:

hindteethfull.jpg


This isn't a trick question in that I've no idea at all how old she is, nor how to work it out, so if anyone willing to have a try at it could also say how they reached their conclusion then I'd be grateful for the info and insight.
sika are a mine field to age as they will eat any thing .
there eating fall oak bark where i stalk now as the snow is deep .
we have them living on the hill to low lands on sweet grass .
i think your hind is mature but not old , no help i know .
tagged sika hear have died at 16 - 14 years of old age and weather only 100 s of yards from where they were tagged as calfs .
you should try tag some calfs this year it will be a interesting and rewarding project.
 
Hi, deer commission for scotland has information on its wedsite on tooth eruption which may help you. (I believe its in the best practice guides. )

I agree with irishgun. Sika have a varied diet and can be found in local pockets throughout Britain and Ireland ....... so wear on teeth is going to different.

oldgregg
 
Dont forget that it is not only the vegetation that will wear teeth but the soil type will have an influence.

If I was going to put my neck on the block, I would guesstimate around 9 years.
 
Thanks to everyone who has posted for all the info, it is certainly interesting for me.

In general the grazing is probably mostly grass and that sort of thing, these deer are certainly not feeding on heather or the open hill a lot. The soil is peaty with little or now sand so I wouldn't consider it especially hard on teeth. I don't know if that helps or is too general but this is something I know nothing about.

I was asked for another photo so here is the side on one:

hindteethside.jpg
 
still think mature but not old ,with us the sika are digging down to bulbs on banks of clayand eating them snow still bad in parts .
were getting a mix of bark blubs ,clay .almost any thing they can chew. its a hard time on them at the min i have not shot any for 7 days now .

giving them a bit of a rest ,a lot will die on the wicklow hills if the snow does not clear soon .
 
Age from sika teeth

Many excuses from most people but Jingsy had the B***s to have a guess at 9 years old - not far wrong - personally I would a say a year or two older but less than 12 - at that age does it really matter?

Why do I say that? Well - the "infibulums" (the wee trenches in the middle of each tooth) on PM 3 (premolar 3 - third from front) are as good as worn away and on M1 (4th from the front) are closed and nearly gone - I reckon they have gone by 12 years old. There is less wear on some of the back teeth than one might expect - e.g. some "links" the brown line of dentine round the infibulums and between cusps are not continuous.

A good one to cull as she has probably only got a year or two left but being a sika, she was probably in good nick and pregnant with a big stag calf!
 
Thanks for that detailed treatment Himagain, I am going to study the photos and your comments and see if I can learn a little.

Unfortunately she wasn't a cull beast, she was taken by poachers, so not an ideal situation but I thought to try and learn a little from what has been left behind.
 
I would agree with the above @ being about 10.

The problem with sika is that we don't have many known aged jaws, unlike with reds.
Years ago when I was with RDC [DCS predecessor] we tagged 100's of calves every year and this gave us a huge bank of known aged jaws.
The wear rate down to soil and vegetation is not as muh as you think as we were tagging East coast deer which were grazing on a lot of heather, west coast deer on green grass with little difference although some of the island [mostly on Rhum]and coastal deer that were going down to the shore for sea weed did show more wear probably due to the sand.
 
Back
Top