AGE OF-ANIMALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 June 1933, Page 10

AGE OF-ANIMALS

■/ .POPULAR FALLACIES. * ■’.’ fy ’ ; -■’ ■ '' ■ “'"'if '■ r ''‘' — .■ 1 The most reliable contributions on . the subject pf'the'duration of animal y'lifc arc those!/that have been compiled by Sir, Chalmers Mitchell and Major Stanley Flower, and their findings, as recqrded will surprise the average'' man and. dispel some' cherished illusions. A-mOlig wai m-hlopded animals civilised .man is easily the winner in life’s • race,Be it hoteda that this applies only to civilised; pian, for the so-called ■ Ravage,” despite life' open-air and undeniably “simple” life, approaches ■ sehility long before the average “city worker.” Longevity ci the kind associated with Methuselah is only to be met with .in "the realms of scientific truth among the cold-blooded creatures and among these records worthy of the name have only been set up by a few tortoises. I A tortoise-, tha.t recently died and I had been kept for many years in the I Artillery Mess at Mauritius, was speci- : ally mentioned in the charter drawn up when the‘islaiid Was taken from tli e Fi.eneh in 1810". At that date it ■v, us. •scheduled.,as?-‘a - centenarian. Ani other of these giant .reptiles recently c A n the island of St. Helena was i a with the great Napoleon, j E vin me small’ European tortoises, sum.-, as are sold .on costers’ barrows, attain" a great age. One that died a few years ago had/been kept in the Same family in Cornwall lor ninetysix years. Fish may live to a, comparatively old age, although little is known as to their potential longevity. Some freshwatei sturgeons kept in. Captain Yipah’s aquarium at- S.tebbington Hall, in Northamptonshire, were obtained from the Volga some forty years back, while a big wcls, or giant catfish, from the Danube, which is still living in the Dv.k e of Bedford’s lake at Woburn, was introduced into its- present quarters over -sixty years ago, writes E. C. Boulcngcr in the “Observer.” It must be admitted that most fi.Mi life-records like most ’..‘fish stories,” are unsatis-; ..factory, A classic example is that of a pike reputed to. bo over two hundred ycais old. because a Queen Anne coin was found in its stomach. But however untrustworthy fish records may be, unimpeachable statistics are not wanting in the case of mammals and birds. Most mammals are comparatively short-lived, and those that attain to even thirty years and over can bo counted on one’s fingers. They art? Man, 100 years; elephants, 50 years; rhinoceroses, 45 years; bipi epotami, 40 years; bears i 35 years; apes, 35. years; cats, 30 years; and giraffes, 30 years. 1

AGE AND . SIZE. S /./' \ Although .at varitmee with popular It aditio'hs','large aiiimals do not neccsfaiily tend to Jive longer than small ones. Whales, lor instance, the largest of all mammals, do not, according I to experts l , live to be more than about ■lO. Their rate of growth, it has been recently ascertained, is extraordinarily rapid, sonic of the largest forms •hrconing sexually mature when under three years of age. ICho'lmnl ■; are generally regarded'as living to a century or more, but avail-

able records indicate that the animal seldom exceeds the age of 50. Major Flower, who ha s examined the “dossiers” of some hundreds of elephants kept in India, as well as in Europe and America, states that he is unable to find any evidence of an elephant living to the age of 100. He is of the opinion that the life span of these animals is less than that of a man, averaging about 40.

As maji holds the record for longevity among mammals one would expect the man-like apes to come next in order. The potential longevity of an ape, however, does not exceed 35 years. The record at the London Zoo is held by a chimpanzee, which died some time ago at the age .of 26, suffering from senile decay.

Writing on the subject of lions, animals which have been kept for over thirty years in captivity, Major Flower observes that this animal does so well in captivity that, it outlives its normal span of life. He points out that a captive lion sheltered from the elements and from competitors in the struggle for existence and with suitable food placed within reach, goes on living to an age that it could not attain in its wild state. A wild lion is in its prime of life when five or six years old; after ten years his chance of remaining alive depends on big individual cleverness and the absence of competitors for food. A few birds have acquired fabulous reputations for longevity, and on no mere stable ground than those attached to the elephant. The ravens in the Tower of London, for instance, are regarded with awe by many visitors who believed them to be centenarians. The records in the guardroom, where every raven is attested like any soldier, shows the oldest ever) kept within its walls to have been ' not more than ten years "on the strength.” I

The parrot, apparently, justifies some- ot the stories told about tin: bird's longevity, since there are authentic records of specimens enjoying from seventy to one hundred and five years of raucous life, both in public menageries and under private ownership.

Small birds live longer than on might suppose;.a nightingale has beet recorded to have, lived twenty-liv years under captive conditions; a sky lark twenty-four, a greenfinch twenty three, a cardinal twenty-three, and i canary twenty.