Age Determination of the Blue Wildebeest Connochaetes Taurinus in Zululand

Abstract

Age determination methods for the blue wildebeest employed the use of tooth eruption sequence, cementum layers from macroscopic tooth sections, eye lens mass, and tooth attrition. Eleven eruption classes were arrived at, providing a reliable method of age determination up to 3,5 years. The times of eruption of specific teeth were compared with data from East Africa. The restricted birth interval of wildebeest enabled some sub-adult animals to be regarded as ‘known-age’ which were used to arrive at a value for the number of cementum layers laid down per annum, and to provide a ‘correction factor’ for the period before eruption and cemental deposition. The nature of tooth cementum lines in wildebeest is discussed, and changes in infundibular patterns were related to cementum or eruption age, providing an age-wear chart with 14 adult classes, adequate for life-table data. Incisiform wear in wildebeest appears to follow a curvilinear relationship. When eye lens mass was plotted against cementum or eruption age, the resultant curve served only to distinguish between animals below one year old and the older age classes. Anomalies in dentition are discussed. Some criteria for age determination in the field are presented.