Using Mandibular Tooth Row Length to Age Yearling White-Tailed Deer

Autor: Stephen M. Shea, Robin Governo, Greg L. Somers, Stephen S. Ditchkoff
Rok vydání: 2006
Předmět:
Zdroj: Wildlife Society Bulletin. 34:345-350
ISSN: 1938-5463
0091-7648
DOI: 10.2193/0091-7648(2006)34[345:umtrlt]2.0.co;2
Popis: Using current methods of age determination, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from the same cohort are classified as 1.5-year-old deer when actual age may vary by 6 or more months. We measured mandibular tooth row length (mm) on mandible impressions of 41 (23 males and 18 females) known-age captive white-tailed deer to develop an aging model that would estimate age in days. To test the model, each month from 12 to 24 months, we measured dentitions of 34 (19 males, 15 females) known-age captive white-tailed deer. We found that mandibular tooth row length was a strong predictor of age for both males (r2 = 0.93; P ≤ 0.0001) and females (r2 = 0.92; P ≤ 0.0001). For males and females, respectively, the equations that predicted age (days) were ln (age) = −4.34 + 2.45 ln (mandibular tooth row length in mm) and ln (age) = −4.62 + 2.54 ln (mandibular tooth row length in mm). The models predicted >50% of test jaws for males from 14 to 24 months and >60% of test jaws for females from 16–24 months w...
Databáze: OpenAIRE