Age data for New Jersey deer is commonly collected by Fish and Wildlife staff, who, prior to the implementation of the AHRS in 2012, aged deer by examining tooth eruption and wear on deer brought to check stations on high volume days. In deer management zones with small deer harvests, it had been logistically difficult to collect enough age data for deer in those zones since relatively few deer were brought to check stations on any given day.
In an effort to collect adequate deer age data for zones with small total harvests, Fish and Wildlife's White-tailed Deer Research Project asked hunters in those zones to submit a single tooth from harvested deer. The collection of tooth samples was coordinated through county chapters of the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs during the 2008-2009 deer hunting seasons and by the federation and other interested parties during the 2009-2010, 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.
Deer ages were determined from the teeth submitted through a process called cementum annuli aging. Much like annual growth rings formed in the wood of trees, animal teeth have an annular ring pattern of cementum growth. The cementum rings are clearly visible when very thin cross sections of decalcified teeth are subjected to a staining process. The New Jersey samples were analyzed by Matson's Lab. More information on cementum aging can be viewed on their website at http://matsonslab.com/html/Techniques/CementumAging/CementumAging.htm.
Deer age data is an important component in formulating and evaluating deer management strategies. The deer teeth submitted by hunters provides valuable data and the Division of Fish and Wildlife is grateful to the organizations and hunters that provide the tooth samples.
Listed below are the organizations that coordinated the sample collections in 2011-2012 and the number of teeth hunters submitted to them. In all, a total of 226 teeth were submitted for aging for the 2011-2012 seasons.
Atlantic County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 23
Camden County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 17
Essex County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 1
Gloucester County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 5
Mercer County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 1
Middlesex County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 6
Morris County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 12
Union County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 25
Warren County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs - 3
Quality Deer Management Assoc. - So. Jersey Branch - 18
USDA - Wildlife Services - 69
Miscellaneous Hunters - 46
Hunters who submitted tooth samples can view the age of the deer they harvested by matching their deer check seal number with the matching seal number row in the deer age data tables linked below.
2011-2012 Deer Age Data Table (pdf, 12kb)
2010-2011 Deer Age Data Table (pdf, 12kb)
2009-2010 Deer Age Data Table (pdf, 11kb)
2008-2009 Deer Age Data Table (pdf, 12kb)
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