Judging Kudu - Conservation Not Inches

[BRICKBURN]

Most trophy articles focus on horn tips and curls, etc., and that is hard enough to learn, never mind the list Jaco has set out below.

For conservation purposes it is suggested to get a properties population up to carrying capacity of a particular species and then to crop 2% per annum for Trophy Purposes. You know, the really old guys. (One model from Namibia, it is not the bible)

Based on a conservation focus and to take our eyes off the horns for a minute I offer the following.

I am being much more demanding by only posting faces, bases, neck and some shoulder.
You get an immediate advantage because there are a couple of harvested trophies in the list.

TEST ONE
I'll use a game ranching system and have three categories for classification purposes.
A. Sub Adult
B. Adult
C. Old

I think the easiest way to do this will be to copy the categories and then add the letters of the corresponding pictures.
For example:

A Sub Adult 7, 6 ,3
B Adult 1, 2
C Old 4, 5

TEST TWO

If you want, go on to rank them in order of AGE. Youngest to Oldest.
For Example:
4,6,7,3,2,5,1


This thread was inspired by: http://www.africahunting.com/huntin...thing-about-horn-size-shape-2.html#post115616

and by this response in that thread.

?? kudu unlike ringed or straight horned antipope are one of the tougher ones to judge, generally, one would look at the following, ..........., on trophies...

I study horn base ............. to detect soft horn pulp at the very base of the horn, this can be picked up, as an almost white powdery substance in the base, which will sometimes in itself almost look pink... ....

Horn tip... The old long ivory tip myth is exactly that, bulls post prime would have worked down some ivory giving the tip an almost dull, rounded look, often with no "ivory" present.

Body full volume, and often even a considerable loss in volume could possibly indicate age. Keeping in mind that during rut actively rutting bulls will have extremely full (swollen ) necks.

Hair, older bulls will show noticeable amounts of hair loss on they're necks

Hair, older bulls... Not so much different from Eland but not close to as much.... Will have a Tuft of hair on the fore heads this is extremely difficult to detect but under ideal conditions more than possible.

General body and demeanour

We should keep in mind that an ENTIRE picture often provides a judgement and looking at an animal as a whole is required to judge age, this is no easy task hence my comments in my earlier posts.
...........

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

 

[billc]

sub adult-1,2,5 adult-4,3 old-6,7.Age youngest to oldest 1,2,5,4,3,7,6. Going to be ugly when i see how wrong i am at guessing.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

What a great thread, thanks for putting it together BRICKBURN!

 

[billc]

What a great thread, thanks for putting it together BRICKBURN!

You can play the game to jerome.Just no emailing brickburn for the answer first.LOL

 

[Diamondhitch]

OK first of all, sub adult usually means less than breeding age which is usually about 1 year so there will be no sub adult here.

3 is either very mature or old, hard to tell.
6 is old but not ancient

Its too hard to tell anything from the kill pics to even make a guess.

 

[BRICKBURN]

OK first of all, sub adult usually means less than breeding age which is usually about 1 year so there will be no sub adult here.

3 is either very mature or old, hard to tell.
6 is old but not ancient

Its too hard to tell anything from the kill pics to even make a guess.

OK. Here is the reference point. I can't have you not wanting to play.

 

[enysse]

3,4,6,7,2,5,1 oldest to youngest

 

[Diamondhitch]

I see, they have a different model than NA biologists.

So old is not necessarily post breeding age but close maybe? and Adult is 3yrs plus, gotcha.

BTW I have been told I don't play well with others LOL

 

[Diamondhitch]

1,2,5,4,7,3,6 young to old

 

[bluey]

im guessing 1,4,2,3,,5,7,6 as youngest to oldest .

 

[Nevada Wapati]

OK, I'll guess 1,4,3,2,5,7 & 6, youngest to oldest.

 

[Royal27]

1,2,4,3,7,5,6

Talk about guessing.... I'm guessing!!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Here's the extra help. The full frame pictures.

Does this information change your order?

1 .


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.

 

[enysse]

Ok, that's a little better, some nice kudu!

6,7,3,4,5,1,2 oldest to youngest

 

[BRICKBURN]

One of the reasons I LOVE KUDU is because they are so damn hard to judge properly.
Never mind they have the temperament of an old Whitetail Deer crossed with an Elk.

Judging Kudu horn length and trophy quality properly is an art.
Anyone coming even close in my estimation deserves credit.

Kudu are easy to make a mistake on when you are trying to call inches.
Like Jaco said, PH School drills you on inches, not age.
Hunters often show up with SCI and Rowland expectations. PH's have to be able to call inches.
But, they sure need to be able to discuss Conservation with the hunter.

It was interesting to read in the other thread about how so many (100) Kudu were passed up to shoot a particular kind of trophy; A wide one.

I do not know how many Kudu I passed up at Ozondjahe, Kanana, and Leeukop to.
There were a lot of gorgeous Old and Adult Kudu bulls that would have scored well and a bunch would have been Rowland for sure. (Which means that most were well past SCI Gold minimum)

I took #7 last year. When I saw him I had no doubt in my mind with his body size, colour and incredible horns that he would meet my hunting goal.

My finger estimate had him at 64 in the field. In the skinning shed he shrank to an awesome 58.5.

He is an amazing trophy that at one point earlier in his life he was certainly over 60 inches.
That I was not there to hunt him at that point is fine with me.
I got an astounding Old Conservation Bull.

I'm still going to search for the Holy Grail though. I love Kudu Hunting.





When the picture is zoomed in (cropped tight) it is interesting to see that the bases all look quite large.
Of course its relative to the face.


When I look really closely at these Kudu I can see a large number of Jaco's suggestions for determining age.


The first tip about the "pink" at the bases.
1 & 5

Lack of hair on the neck/shoulder
7 & 6 ( Really look at 6's shoulder and its evident.) 7 makes him look hairy if I showed you.

Worn down thicker tips
7 & 6 & 3

Thicker Faces - Neck
7 & 6 & 3 (Look at the developed fullness and compare it to "baby faces" 1 & 2)

Beaten Up Ears Face
7 (Look at the chunks out of his ears) & 6 (Scars on his face)

Forehead tuft
Damned if I can see a suggestion of it.




SCROLL DOWN FOR MY ANSWERS























My answers (estimations):

SubAdult - 1 2
Adult - 4 5
Old - 6 7 3




Youngest to Oldest
2 - 1 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 6 - 7

 

[BRICKBURN]

sub adult-1,2,5 adult-4,3 old-6,7.Age youngest to oldest 1,2,5,4,3,7,6. Going to be ugly when i see how wrong i am at guessing.

Not quite as ugly as you thought.

 

[KWALATA SAFARIS]

Brickburn the second last bull has some of the hair I suggest IMO also the oldest bull in the bunch

1,2,3 were still growing horn, evident in the bases and the lack of the compressed ridges.(smoother horned.

The little Scruggs are only present in bulls of reasonable old age...

I have more I'll send to you and we can post, an age thread, maybe in all species?

My best always

 

[SafariA]

:cook2: who let youout the kitchen ??

 

[KWALATA SAFARIS]

Richard, I had to ask nicely she'll even let me have a beer with you tomorrow!

My best always

 

[billc]

Not quite as ugly as you thought.

better then I thought and I would have switched 6 and 7 if i would have seen all the horn.You took one awesome kudu taking the one you did.I bet he was over 60 at sometime in his life.No one would need to tell me twice to take number 6 either.