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THE LIFE SPAN OF ANIMALS

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Crystal Thielkien
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« on: January 16, 2009, 01:49:22 pm »

****:THE LIFE SPAN OF ANIMALS
Signs of senility, or extreme old age, are seldom seen in the wild.
Animals living under natural conditions rarely approach their maximum
possible age because of very high death rates due to infant mortality,
diseases, predators, bad weather, accidents, or competition for food and
shelter. For this reason, most of the reliable information about the
length of the life span comes from zoos, where accurate records are
kept and animals live under conditions almost ideally suited to prolong
life. A mouse whose life is measured in months in the wild can survive
years of captivity.

Large animals tend to live longer than their smaller relatives -- but there
are many exceptions. For example, man is longer-lived than any other
mammal. After him, in age, comes the elephant, hippopotamus, horse,
rhinoceros, the bears, the big cats and many others which are larger in
size. In general, birds live longer than mammals, and certain reptiles the
longest of all. A giant tortoise is known to have lived 152 years on the
island of Mauritius and then was killed accidentally or it might have
lived a century longer. Even our common box turtle rather frequently
reaches the 50-year mark. It is an interesting sidelight that there seems
to have been no change in the life span of dogs, cats, horses and cows
under thousands of years of domestication by man.

The following examples of extreme old age have been chosen from the
reliable records of zoos and aquariums all over the world.

MAMMALS         YEARS
Elephant        69
Horse           50
Hippopotamus    49
Chimpanzee      40
Grizzly Bear    32
Bison           30
Lion            30
Tiger           25
Elk             22
Mountain Lion   20
Beaver          19
Wolf            16
Squirrel        16
Chipmunk        12
Cottontail      10
House Mouse     4

BIRDS           YEARS
Turkey Buzzard  118
Swan            102
Parrot           80
Great Horned Owl 68
Eagle            55
English Sparrow  23
Canary           22
Humming Bird      8

REPTILES        YEARS
Giant Tortoise  152
Box Turtle      123
Alligator        68
Snapping Turtle  57
Cobra            28
Cottonmouth      21

AMPHIBIANS      YEARS
Giant Salamander 55
Toad             36
Bullfrog         30
Mud Puppy        23
Green Frog       10
Newt              7

FISH            YEARS
Catfish          60
Eel              55
Carp             47
Mosquitofish      2

INSECTS         YEARS
Cicada           17
Ant (queen)      15

Locally, in the Lincoln Park Zoo, for instance, the Indian elephant,
"Judy", died last year at 51. "Bushman", the famous gorilla, died there
at 23 years and a pelican at 52. When the Shedd Aquarium was under
construction in 1929 workmen, for a joke, stocked the central pool with
carp. Twenty Eight years later, three or four of them still survived.
Among the native wildlife in our Trailside Museum a gray squirrel has
lived 16 years, a barred owl 15, a blue jay and a chipmunk each 12
years. At the Brookfield Zoo, the pair of chimps, "Mike" and "Sally"
died at 35 and 37 years old, respectively. They still have the same
alligator snapper and "Cookie" the Cockatoo with which they opened in
1934. Dozens of birds have lived 18 to 20 years and hundreds 8 to 15
years. A spitting cobra died after 23 years in the zoo.


http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/400-499/nb486.htm
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Crystal Thielkien
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« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2009, 01:50:45 pm »

Maximum Recorded Lifespan of 58 Animals

1. Tortoise 188 years
2. Lake Sturgeon 152 years
3. Human 122 years, 5 months
4. Fin Whale 116 years
5. Blue Whale 110 years
6. Humpback Whale 95 years
7. Elephant (African) 80 years
8. Turtle (eastern box) 75 years
9. Parrot (African grey) 73 years
10. Alligator 66 years
11. Horse 62 years
12. Chimpanzee 59 years, 5 months
13. Orangutan 59 years
14. Eagle (eastern imperial) 56 years
15. Seal (Baikal) 56 years
16. Hippopotamus 54 years, 4 months
17. Gorilla 54 years
18. Camel 50 years
19. Grizzly Bear 50 years
20. Rhinoceros (Indian) 49 years
21. Brown Bear 47 years
22. Condor (California) 45 years
23. Goldfish 43 years
24. Hyena (spotted) 41 years, 1 month
25. Boa constrictor 40 years, 3 months
26. Vulture 39 years
27. Polar Bear 38 years, 2 months
28. Giraffe 36 years, 4 months
29. Dolphin 35 years
30. Rhinoceros (Sumatran) 35 years
31. Cat 34 years
32. Ant (queen) 30 years
33. Kangaroo (red) 30 years
34. Panda (giant) 30 years
35. Dog 29 years, 6 months
36. Lion 29 years
37. Porcupine (Old World) 27 years, 4 months
38. Tiger 26 years, 4 months
39. Wombat 26 years, 1 month
40. Aardvark 24 years
41. Sheep 24 years
42. Jaguar 22 years
43. Raccoon 20 years, 7 months
44. Frog 20 years
45. Koala 20 years
46. Porcupine (normal) 20 years
47. Vampire Bat 19 years, 6 months
48. Pigeon 18 years, 6 months
49. Rabbit 18 years
50. Duck-billed Platypus 17 years
51. Guinea Pig 14 years, 10 months
52. Hedgehog 14 years
53. Shrew (non-human) 12 years
54. Hamster 10 years
55. Gopher (eastern pocket) 7 years, 2 months
56. Anchovy 7 years
57. Partridge 6 years, 3 months
58. Mole 5 years

Primary Source: Max Planck Institute web site http://www.demogr.mpg.de/; also Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish, by James R. Carey and Debra S. Judge.

http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Animals/MaximumRecordedLifespanOf58
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