Thread: Age of animal query ....

Originally Posted by bigbear

I'll have a guess and say 3years but am interested in knowing. He only looks like a young animal to me.
. Also to the experts a head that only has one bey/bez antler like this will it ever grow one on the other side?? @hebe put up your stag on here see if any one can age your head

I am tending to Hunter AT's assessment at 2.5 yrs although he could be 3.5 as when the first teeth are shed and replaced is not 100% consistent with all deer - much the same as human children. It is much easier to assess an animal from a full body photo not just the head where the body proportions can't be gauged.
As far as the missing Bey question, missing Beys is a genetic fault in some feral herds like the Rakaia. Some animals will grow little nubs where the Beys should be and others are clean with no Bey at all. When an animal has one proper fully formed Bey like the OP's stag In my opinion that stag could grow both Beys or no beys in future heads as antlers normally grow as matched pairs. It is not a common fault for any herds to produce stags with only one Bey, therefore I dont expect the stag would have been consistent with that in the future