Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting aging elk by the teeth

On the 'I shot grandma' thread, I posted some pics of the teeth of a cow I shot for some opinions of her age. We could all learn something here. I reposted the photos below. How old do you think she is and why do you think that?

Please post some similar pics of your elk. The more we see, the better we can all get at aging them correctly. How about young and old ones?

Bull I took this year, his teeth are getting aged in the lab.
Took a cow that is ancient, her teeth are going off to the lab also.

I don't have a good grip on aging from teeth, but I am a bit surprised those ivories are not more worn down, for how old you think she is.
The older elk that I have shot over the years usually have ivories only 1/16 inch or so below the gumline and appear "flat" if that makes sense. They look like this:


This is what younger, but still mature elk ivories have looked like IME. They're more rounded and sticking out of the gumline by a full tooth width or so.

It’s my opinion as well based on the three bulls I’ve had aged. Ivory’s are worn to the gums on my 11 year old bull, and the teeth themselves weren’t far behind.

I’d guess that cow at 6-7.. but that’s a WAG.. could be older but really doubt she’s over 10.

That cow is nowhere near old. It’s a fairly young cow, I’d wager 3-4 years old by the teeth.

I too was putting her at 3-4 when I saw them.
I shot one that was radio collared a few years ago, she had been captured about 6 years before and was an adult them. She had no front teeth and the rest were very worn and she was enormous. I figured 15-20 years old possibly. We ground almost all of her up.

I also believe she was a young cow, old cows are usually missing teeth, the ivorys, as are the molars are worn to the gum line. I have shot a couple they are usually very large and eat well, but I think they were nearing the end of their life cycle.

Wouldn't aging an elk be similar to aging a beef cow? I agree, she is not all that old. Here's how you age a beef cow: "Determining the age of cows up to 5 years of age is simple and accurate: the animal has two permanent incisors at 2 years of age, four at 3 years of age, six at 4 years of age and a full mouth of eight permanent incisors at 5 years of age." If that holds for an elk, she is 5 I reckon.
Phil

Not exactly with elk. As a yearling they have two permanent incisors. By the next fall, all incisors are permanent and aging is largely based on wear or flatness of those incisors. The elk is not old at all, . I can't remember replacement on molars but I believe a couple of those are also non permanent. Now the elk Wytex posted does have some age. I bet it's 15+.