That’s cool! I think it would be very neat and informative if you could show us a pic of the upper incisors on each age class from say 6 months - 10 years old.
It would be very interesting and useful, to me anyways.

But only if it didn’t take up too much of your time. Maybe a future Photo Phriday topic!

Jack, you gave this one the bling. Wonder if it's the same one in the third pic posted?

For what it’s worth, I found this for aging by teeth…
https://wolfsongalaska.org/chorus/Accuracy-and-Precision-Estimating-Age-of-Gray-Wolves-Tooth-Wear

jake -

That drawing is really pretty good for Intermountain West wolves. It works better on Alaska wolves. I've modified it a bit for tooth wear on Idaho wolves, as it seems they wear down their incisors at a slightly faster rate. I know Jurassic Park was interested; that drawing works well for most sections of Canadian wolves. I don't put much stock in the wear rates on the premolars and the molars; Seems they are highly variable compared with the upper incisors. Thanks for posting that.

Jack

Jack, would those different wear rates be due to different soils and/or diet ? Or frozen meat ?

Yea, it’s tough to tell. I figured mine was 4-6 years, but the incisor length look younger.

Same wolf but better pic

I'm guessing it has to do with size of prey. To me, the bigger the prey animal (moose in Alaska), the greater the chances of biting into clean meat. With smaller prey (deer), chances are the smaller muscles have been rolled in the dirt, and the greater the chances that the predator gets dirt or sand in most bites, leading to slightly more wear. This, of course, is just a guess. Could have something to do with length of time of snow on the ground. All winter (long winters), those Alaska wolves are eating on top of snow or ice, and there's very little chance of sand or dirt. Down here, most places, snow and ice are intermittent through the winter, and much longer periods where the prey may get dirt/sand, leading to increased chance of tooth abrasion. Just speculation. Make sense?

Jack

Sure does !! Sort of like marten that are eating dead salmon in sandy environments.

Thanks !!

I don't like sand on my steak...

You must have good teeth Sharon.
Mine got wore down a bit biting off beer caps before they made the twist offs.

As a matter of fact, I DO have good teeth, Boco

Wuffs could too if they washed their meat in the rivah, like a raccoon does

Ok, so based from this picture the lines represent where the tooth would be worn down to at that age, correct?

JP -

YES!

Jack

They don't have a thumb like a coon does.

Makes sense! Thanks!

Yes, Jumper. I only collared one black (somewhat blue) wolf in that area. I caught him in Bimerick Creek. That's the same wolf, I'm sure.