Antelope Aging/Horn Size Study
The Arizona Antelope Foundation in cooperation with the Armendaris
Ranch in New Mexico, is undertaking a study to age harvested pronghorn antelope and compare their respective horn size and B & C score. In most antlered big game species, the older the
animal, the larger the antlers and the bigger the B & C score. That's proving to not to hold true with pronghorn, hence the study. Data collected on the Armendaris
Ranch and elsewhere show that the biggest bucks are those in the 2 to 6 year age categories.
You can help us in the process by rough scoring your trophy and submitting a tooth for us to age. It won't cost you anything except some postage...mailing us a tooth, score
sheet, tooth collection form, and including a self addressed stamped envelope if you want to know the results. Click here to print the tooth collection form.
After you harvest your trophy, remove one of the middle incisors from the lower jaw (antelope do not have any upper incisors). The best way to do this is to take a heavy knife or screwdriver and cut
through the gums along the sides of the tooth. Once the tooth is loose, or you have cut deep enough, pry out the entire tooth including the root. If you mess up, no problem, you have 3 more
incisors to work with.
Place the tooth into the tooth envelope you were provided at our Annual Hunter's Clinic. If you did not attend the clinic, simply place the tooth in a small envelope with your name & address on
it.
You also need to green score your trophy. All we need is the length of the right and left horn plus the circumference at the base, circumference at 1st quarter, circumference at
second quarter, and the circumference of the 3rd quarter along with the length of the prong for each horn. If you’re not sure how to do it, or you need a score sheet, visit the Hunter’s Resource’s
page HERE on our website for help.
Staple your score sheet, tooth envelope, and tooth collection form together, and place inside a regular envelope so that there is no blood showing. Be sure you’ve included the following information
on your form:
- Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- State
- Game Management Unit
- Any other pertinent information
Mail to:
AZ Antelope Foundation
P.O. Box 12590
Glendale, AZ 85318-2590
After we have gathered up all of the envelopes, we will code each hunter to a number and send the paired data with the tooth on to the Armendaris Ranch and Mapston's Laboratory. This will
give us some meaningful results that will be useful in determining which age classes to manage for, and how it may impact the various pronghorn herds.
We will also post the results on our website (see below), and if you've given us a self addressed return envelope, we'll send you your individual results.
If you have any questions, send us an email at info@azantelope.org.
Congratulations on your success and thanks for participating in our study!
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