"Butch" the Willow park bull is dead

huntin100 · May 13, 2008

Butch died acouple weeks ago after living 13 years. His last set of antlers were shed March 1st. They scored 400 and change. Even with plenty of good food and no hard battles fighting with other bulls during the rut, he still lived only to be 13 yrs old. Some cows have been known to live 20 plus years.

What do you think the ave life expectancy is for non captive bulls, who have to find food during the winter, go through deep snows at times, being chased by hunters for 4-5 months. being chased by predators, often harrassed by shed hunters, etc???

I'm sure it is lower where wolves are constantly harrassing. Just wondering your thoughts? Lets see some research stats as well. Are we really having many bulls die of old age in limited entry units? Just a friendly discussion boys.

ForkWest · May 13, 2008

Oh no kid'n!? I handn't heard. We loved going up to check him out. Any plans for a replacement bull?

You make some very valid points.

Blanding_Boy · May 13, 2008

Greg--

Do you know how he died? Just old age or did he catch some disease, get his head stuck in the gate etc.

I would guess that wild free ranging bulls in non-hunted or lightly non-hunted units like many of Utah's can easily live that long. We have had several bulls 12+ years old. However, on average even in non-hunted populations average age of all bulls in the population from birth to death is likely just a few years (2+) old. Now if just look at 2+ year old bulls and throw all the calf and juvenile mortality out, would guess in non-hunted or lightly non-hunted areas you are looking at 5+ years average age--just a guess.

Todd Black
BTO

4000fps · May 13, 2008

>What do you think the ave
>life expectancy is for non
>captive bulls, who have to
>find food during the winter,
>go through deep snows at
>times, being chased by hunters
>for 4-5 months. being chased
>by predators, often harrassed by
>shed hunters, etc???

In Colorado, it is 2.5 years, then they get smoked.

huntin100 · May 13, 2008

Todd, No known disease nor accident. Just two weeks prior to his death he started to look bad. I think they are trying to check things out. They believe it was just old age. I have some friends who work for Logan City Parks. They told me about the news. He had to of been pretty healthy last year, to have had a 400 inch rack. Greg

rpleish · May 13, 2008

So are they going to replace him? I went by there a couple of days ago and was all jacked up to see how big he was and he was gone. Didn't he start out there as a spike?

huntin100 · May 13, 2008

Leish, Butch was raised at Willow Park. They still have all of his shed antlers for education. I'm sure they will raise another bull.

Todd, I'm sure there are 12-13 yr old bulls shot. I think bulls in southern Utah, NV, NM, and AZ may live longer than bulls in MT,WY,ID, because less stress from hard winters and less or no wolves. Still wondering on ave age life expectancy for bull elk, in slightly hunted areas. ie. limited entry units. My guess would be around 6 yrs old. No research data yet.

MulePacker · May 13, 2008

I can't cite sources simply becasue I don't have time to look up the specifics. However, if you do a search on the net or two books to look into would be Elk of North America and Dr. Geists book to get a good idea. However keep in mind average age and life expectancy are two different items. The number that I have found to be exceptable for life expectancy is 9.5 yrs for a wild population.

apollosmith · May 13, 2008

>So are they going to replace him?

Yes, I've been told by a reliable source that they have purchased his grandson from another zoo as a replacement. I guess he is still young, but has the genetics to make some awesome sheds like his granddaddy did. I think the official score on this year's sheds were 405. They are all at the zoo for you to check out.