Aging Beaver Teeth 



71 



PREDICTEDAGE 

 (YEARS) 



V 12.00 



CEMENTUM LENGTH 

 67 (MM) 



18.67 



NONCEMENTUM LENGTH 

 (MM) 



Fig. 2. Response surface of an exponential model predicting age of 

 west Tennessee beaver using cementum length and noncementum length 

 measured along the estimated maximum longitudinal cross-sections of 

 premolars as independent variables. 



patterns. Comparative study is needed to document potential variation 

 of these criteria. Also, the method should be validated using known- 

 age specimens. However, these results suggest that this technique 

 could be developed as a reliable method to age beavers. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS— -The project was funded by the Hobart 

 Ames Foundation and The University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. J. Schneider gave invaluable assistance with statistical analyses. 

 R. Henry, J. Morrow, and T. Sain provided the majority of data collections. 

 R. Maxey contributed the drawing in Figure 1. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Buckley, J. J., and W. L. Libby. 1955. Growth rates and age determi- 

 nation in Alaska beaver. Transactions of the North American 

 Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 20:495-505. 



Friley, C. E., Jr. 1949. Use of the baculum in age determination of 

 Michigan beaver. Journal of Mammalogy 30(3):261-267. 



Larson, J. S., and F. C. van Nostrand. 1968. An evaluation of beaver 

 aging techniques. The Journal of Wildlife Management 32(1):99-103. 



