Clearwater wildlife blog series: Installment #3 White tailed deer teeth results

*Buck harvest includes males aged at ½, or button bucks, although these individuals may not have sported antlers at the time of harvest.

Of the 365 sampled white-tailed deer from unit 10A, most deer were between one half and three and a half years of age. However, a strong number of sampled does and bucks exceeded four years of age.

Interpretation of results

So, what do these ages mean? Deer populations generally have greater numbers of younger deer than older deer. Because younger deer are recruited into the population every year through births and older deer leave the population each year through deaths, the natural progression of young-to-old deer establishes this pattern. As managers tasked with managing this species, we expect most deer harvested to be younger simply because there are more young deer than old deer in the field and available to hunters. Based on the proportions of deer age classes observed in 8A and 10A, populations are following an expected trend. Lastly, a good indicator of population health is the strong portions of harvested deer in the 4+ category. Deer in these age classes are mature and are, and likely have been, contributing back to the population through reproduction.

These statistics are valuable for understanding harvested white-tailed deer age structure in these units, but it is important to remember that these summaries may not be perfect representations of deer populations. Factors such as hunter preference for notching their tag on bigger bodied deer to fill the freezer or bucks with larger antlers to fill their wall could influence which deer are harvested. It is also possible hunters who harvested larger or noticeably older deer were more inclined to submit a tooth to learn the age. These points should be considered when interpreting the data.