THE AGE OF ANIMALS.
As far as naturalists have been able to disqover, the elephant lives to the greatest age of any of the animals with which we are familiar. It takes 25 to SO years, and .sometimes longer, for elephants to complete tneir growth. It is recorded that certain specified animals have lived more than 150 years, but the statistics on subjects of this sort are necessarily incomplete, and therefore unreliable. The lion is supposed to live 40 years, although it is claimed that one kept in the Tower of London attained the age of 70, years. It is not supposed that he would have lived to that age under natural conditions. The horse is a shortlived animal, but when carefully kept and allowed to spend a great deal of its time in pasture it has been known to live past the age of 40 years. The trouble with horses is that they are fed for hard work, and consequently their feet and their digestion wear out. Eighteen to 24 years is a very high average for horses to attain. Cows live 18 or 20 years, but they have very little value toward the latter portion of this period, save in exceptional cases.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 157, 31 December 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)
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204THE AGE OF ANIMALS. Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 157, 31 December 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)
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