Contributors to this thread:
I just got the long awaited results from B&C on the age of the bear I got back in 2017. For you bear experts, any age guesses based on the pics? As I recall, it squared a bit over 7' and the skull was 21-1/16".
8 (really have no idea), and a heck of nice bear!!! Congratulations on a giant.
Those chompers don’t look that old I say 6.
I’m going to agree with Spike that those teeth look to be in quite good condition… But I have no idea what the rest of them look like or what those bears eat.
So I’m not even going to guess, but I will be watching with some interest, just because I find all of these animals fascinating…
Here ya go....some accurate guesses above from the guys north of the border. Well done.
""Your submitted sample was recently returned from Matson’s Laboratory and the age of your trophy black bear when harvested was 12 years old. ""
The only way you can judge Bear age is from wear and tear from the teeth.
Pasquale......B&C sent the tooth off to a lab to get analyzed for the age. I'm guessing the same or similar way they do deer teeth.
Man, that’s a heck of a black Bear.
Minnesota collects a tooth from all bears when you register them. They cut a thin slice and count the rings of cementum(I think) much like one counts the rings of a tree.
I had another email from B&C. These are the oldest aged bear and deer from this batch of teeth sent in.
"You’re welcome, bears are usually live the longest are the older trophies harvested. The oldest bear we had in this batch was 15 and the oldest whitetail was 9."
I had a client take an Alaska black bear sow one time that was aged by ADFG at 23!
The old girl had almost NO teeth. She was an expert at foraging for fall berries, but I think she was on borrowed time and likely not to survive another winter. She was not very fat compared to other younger bears at that time of year. She also sported a very lively population of round worms (some up to 12" in length) in her intestinal tract.
23 is pretty darned old for a bear!
Pete
Pete....I guess that would be one where the taxi has to add teeth to the mount.
I think they add teeth to all bear mounts :)
While the teeth are good and stained they don’t appear overly worn/ broken. It would be nice to see the rest of them to get a better idea.
If the rest of them are as “ nice” as these I’d guess 8-9-10
Shug....here's the skull....it was aged at 12 yrs.
Congrats on your bear!
We have some old bears in Pa. Don’t want to hijack your thread, but there is some very interesting info in this link......................
Interesting. Older than I would have guessed, as I too thought the teeth appeared to be in fairly decent shape. These are teeth from only bear I have killed, here in NM, although I haven't gotten it aged.
Rut....I don't care if you "hijack' this....it's an open thread. Most of mine are open as far as I'm concerned. If someone has a good story...send it! That PA bear was an old one. Kinda sad it went out that way at the end. Thanks for the link.
Beautiful bear congratulations…
This boar was aged by DFG at 21 yrs. He was in the Marble Mountains Wilderness in California. He was eating acorns at 10 yds when my arrow hit him. The roar that he let out when the arrow hit him will be forever etched in my mind.....
Beautiful bear congratulations…
