RE: life span of a deer
Our game department used to request teeth so they could do cross-sectional aging on them (but they quit - I guess they found the program too useful).
However, while it was operating, I had 2 deer that aged at 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 years old. Just by looking at their teeth and other physical features before the official aging was done, it was easy to tell they were pretty old.