Guess the age...

[Lowedog]

I have noticed that a lot of guys seem to know how to age a bear from photos by looking at the ears.  Here is a bear I killed in 2001.  The pic isn't very good but just wanted to see how good you guys are.

[billythekidrock]

Aging a bear by it's ears? Never heard of it, but I am willing to learn.

[bobcat]

Maybe not age, but can't you estimate a bear's size by how big the ears look in proportion to its head?

[Lowedog]

I have noticed on several posts where age and/or size is judged by the ears. 

[Coasthunterjay]

Ide listen to BTKR....if anyone knows bears...not saying whoever can tell you how old a bear is by his ears is wrong...BUT BTKR is one of the most educated bear hunters in washington state and ide have to say hes on it......


I also have to add....I typically age bears by teeth wear and markings...but that still is a guess-timate...seeing how im not a bioligist and dont have all the cool tools and lab...lol....i think you judge muturity by ears, or lack of ears....but not age...

Ill throw out a guess though...Lets go...8 yrs...? Maybe?

[carpsniperg2]

yeah i have never heard of age by ears you can tell a little about the size of the bear by the ears because if they looks big most times its a smaller bear and if they look small. it tends to be a bigger bear. but never heard of age teeth are the best way to tell how old anything is.

[markts]

Nice bear 11 1/2

[alanger]

7 years

[Lowedog]

Yeah, I had never heard of guessing age by ears till I read a post where someone said something about it.  Since then I have read the ear thing several times, maybe more pertaining to size though. 

This bear was 9-1/2.  This is the only bear I have ever shot and maybe ever will unless I happen across a nice color phase or something.  The thing ended up costing me a small fortune! 

[markts]

Wheres those  pics

[bobcat]

Well, I'm definitely not an expert on bears, but doesn't size generally correspond to age? And as carpsniper said, if the ears look small in proportion to the head, then it's a big bear (old) and if the ears look big in proportion to the head, then the bear is small (young.)

[Lowedog]

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,55616.0.html

This is what got me thinking about it.

[Michelle_Nelson]

doesn't size generally correspond to age? 

Absolutly NOT!

You can't judge age by the size of the Bear or how big it's ears look in relation to body size.

You can have a 400lbs 10 year old Bear and a 180lbs 10 year old Bear.  Size is based on genetics.

[JackOfAllTrades]

I'm no Bear expert, but I've never heard of ear sizing determining age. It's not always the case even for size of a bear. I've seen some pretty small headed bears that were big bears. Genetics, like Michelle said.  Watch the huntin shows... Alberta is known for big headed bears that are good sized or even long, but look at Vancouver island here the heads are generally smaller but net some seriously heavy rolly polly bears.

-Steve

[Coasthunterjay]

I am not sure where it is at...because its an older post...But BTKR had a post talking about bear ages and the teeth that he sent in and it was amazing because it looked like he had this very mature 300+ lbs bore and in the next picture he had a picture of this young looking sow...weighning barely 200lbs....

Well after post after post of people on here trying to guess the different ages of these bears....BTKR ends up telling us that one of them is more than twice the others age....And its the small one...

I guess he had gotten the teeth data back from the WDFW biologist and the younger looking of the two was something like 20 plus years of age.....Crazy!

So kind of like what i was trying to say before...Size or for a SHOOTER bear....i guess you can look at the ears...But that doesnt get you anywhere near trying to figure out how old a bear is.....

Man i wish i could find that post...had good pics of the bears also....but just thought ide let you know for next time...