Question on deer hoof growth
Okay, here's a tough one. Does anyone know the general growth pattern of deers' hooves?
1) Is it like a fingernail that grows constantly from birth to death?
2) Is it like the skeletal system, growing until about age 5 or 6, then stopping entirely?
3) Is it some blend of the two, where it grows throughout the deer's lifetime, but grows at a much slower rate as the deer gets older?
I'm trying to build a reliable system for predicting a buck's age by measuring the width of its track.