It’d be very interested to hear Kevin Robertson’s opinion. I’ve used the incisors to age thousands of cattle, but never a Cape buffalo. Cattle have adult incisors erupt in pairs starting with the center teeth at 2,3,4,and 5 years of age and the five year incisors are fully in by six years of age. We call those cattle full mouths. The gums start to recede exposing the roots at 8-10 years of age and the crowns start to wear down after that. It really gets difficult to age cattle after 10 years of age because that tooth wear varies depending on diet. Based on my experience with cattle, I think 16 would be very reasonable. Again, I don’t have experience with buffalo, but I’m suprised that one could live to see 25.
The best way to age a bull buffalo is via the Taylor 1st Molar Tooth Method where the crown heights of the two lower jaw 1st molars (the third teeth from the rear) are measured with a vernier in each quatrant in mm. This gives 8 measurements which are then averaged and plotted on a graph which gives the age in years. This method works well for areas south of the Zambezi Valley which experiences between 450 and 750 mm of annual rainfall. Over my three decades of buffalo fascination I have probably measured a thousand or so such teeth - so much so that I can now just look at these teeth and make a pretty accurate age estimation.
Knowing where a bull was hunted, and when are important considerations when aging because sexual maturity is a function of body weight not age. When mammals attain 2/3s of their genetically determined mature body weigh, they become sexually mature. This is when their testosterone levels increase which in turn produces what is known as secondary sexual characteristics. A buffalo's boss is a secondary sexual characteristic. We know this because caustrated buffalo never develop a boss. In southern Africa, with its 5 month duration summertime rainy season, 80% of buffalo calves are born during the second half of this season. This in turn allows us to age live buffalo more accurately. So knowing where any buffalo was hunted, and at what time of the year, allows us to age buffalo to within a couple of months.
I'm involved with the Rigby Dagga Boy Award where one of the entry requirements is to submit either the two 1st molars or good eye level side-on photos of both sides of the lower jaw so as to be able to see the crown heights. As mentioned the Taylor method was developed in the Zambezi Valley - the Rigby Award is now providing data from bulls from further north in Africa where the rainfall his higher and for longer (better nutrition = faster growth rate) and where the age of sexual maturity is as a result younger.
I have just spent 7 years in Texas where I was involved with three breeding herds of African buffalo.
In the Zambezi Valley and Kruger National Park bulls start to become sexually mature in their 5th year. But in Texas, with the good food we were feeding the buffalo, bulls were fully sexually mature and looked like breeding bulls by the time they were 4! Proof indeed of how nutrition effects what buffalo look like.
Sorry for the long-winded answer but I do not like to give age estimations until I know where a bull was hunted and at what time of the year.
If anyone would like to know more on this subject, they are welcome to send me a PM.
it was from some random online game where I was assigned a random name, liked it, and stuck to it
