Siver Fox....

trappnman

New member
Siver Fox- I have been doing some spring coyote trapping for a radio collar program on yotes here in SE Minnesota. I trapped a few loacations, as I just needed to get 8 yotes. I expected to trap mostly males. To my surprise, they were all females. All of them were caught at 3 locations, with 2 miles as the crow flies. I am told By Wiley that you have some good information concerning ages, etc on spring yotes, including the tooth wear chart that you displayed here once. I would be more than interested in any thoughts or comments concerning spring yotes....thanks....trappnman
 
trappnman--I am not an authority on much of anything, but I do have the tooth chart for aging coyotes and that appears below here. I'll also list the text that explains how to use the various stages of wear to guesstimate a coyote's age. Lots of variables here, so this is not an exact scientific way to age a coyote, but should give you some idea. I think PH (Pete Hauer [sp]) on the GGVG board is doing some type of chemical analysis of teeth to try to determine age.

Coyote_Teeth_small.jpg


Aging Coyotes (Taken from a posting by AZWill on Shade Tree Hunting Forum, 3/6/2000)

In the field, coyotes are normally aged in four categories or classes: (1) Pups; (2) Yearlings; (3) Mature; (4) Old.

At six months the pups normally have their permanent teeth and weigh between 12 and 16 pounds. Young coyotes retain a juvenile face until about eight months old.

At one year coyotes are fully-grown, seldom have much body fat, and their canine and incisor teeth are white and sharp showing no wear.

The above figure represents average tooth wear in a coyote, by years, at mid-winter.

1 yr. – Incisors all rounded; no wear facets; canines sharp, incomplete.

2 yr. – Incisors inner cusp blunted; distinct wear facet; notch distinct; incisor (1) slightly blunted; canines complete.

3 yr. – Incisor flat, notch barely visible; incisor (1) almost square, inner notch distinct, incisor (2) inner cusp half gone; other incisors showing some blunting.

4 yr. – Incisor flat; dentine showing, notch gone; incisor (2) almost flat, incisor (1) worn to inner notch; incisor (2) blunted; both notches visible.

5 yr. – Incisor (1, 2) flat, notches gone; incisor (3) notch visible; incisor (1, 2) flat both inner and outer notches gone, incisor (3) distinctly blunted.

6 yr. – Lower incisors essentially flat across with only tiny notch in incisor (3); incisors (1, 2) flat across, all notches gone; PM (pre-molars) cusps showing wear.

7 yr. – Notch gone from incisor (3), upper incisors flat except incisor (3); canines and all cusps of PM and M (molars) distinctly worn.

Mature coyotes, 2 to 6 years old, have teeth with an increasing degree of wear on the canines and incisors and the animals are heavier in body weight. Older animals of 7 years or more may have teeth that are beginning to yellow and usually show wear on all the teeth. The canine and incisor teeth are sometimes broken or missing.

Perhaps you could contact Steve Allen, retired furbearer biologist who used to be with the North Dakota Game & Fish Department. I believe he has done radio collar studies on both coyotes and fox and has published a number of articles on that research. He used to be a moderator on this board. I'll e-mail his e-mail address to you.

Hope this helps you in some way.

Silverfox
 
Hi guys; long time, no talk--Been really busy just like Silverfox often laments. Been doing some spring raccoon and beaver trapping, and lots of fishing--learning the idiosyncrasies of a new boat/motor, and making preps for our youngest daughters upcoming marriage. I tell you this retirement business is a full-time career; right Silverfox?

Anyway, when I was professionally in the wildlife field, I determined ages of around 7,000 red fox, coyotes and bobcats using canine tooth cementum annuli. This required decalcification of the the tooth (I used a formic acid solution), making microscope slides of stained sections of the root of the tooth (Giemsa stain was the best), and examination of the cementum layer under a microscope (40x mag.). I could count the rings in the cementum just like counting rings in a tree; 1 dark staining ring for each year of life. I verified the method for red fox and coyotes by examining known age animals to determine the accuracy for these species. Accuracy was greater than 90% after the observer knew what he was looking for.

I don't know of a better technique for determining age class of mammals than tooth cementum annuli; however, science marches on and there could very well be something even better now.
 
That is a cool chart....I wonder how old this guy was when my 40 grain Barnes HP ruined his day?
At least 5 or 6 years old I bet...any guesses?

Dawgsix.jpg
 
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