HOW LONG DO ANIMALS LIVE?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19578, 26 August 1933, Page 13

HOW LONG DO ANIMALS LIVE?

We cannot give exact figures about ’ the age of animals, as we can about 1 the age of men and women. * We know the age to which men and women live, because the date of their ' birth is entered in an official register, i and the date of their death also is re--1 corded. Famous animals which are 1 kept by men are registered in books ■ kept for the purpose, so we know the age of prize horses, cattle, and so on. But, if they remained in a wild state, they might live much longer. The prize for the land animals has , to be given to the tortoise. This animal lives under favourable conditions, [ for between three hundred and four hundred years. One died at the zoo ' in 1906 which was stated to be at least three hundred and fifty years of age. ■ The crocodile, given fair play in its native wilds, can live for three huni dred years. If we believed all the stories we read , we should have to say that the toad lives far longer than this, for we are often told that it can be shut up in a rock, or a tree, or in a piece of coal and grow fat on nothing, a close prisoner for thousands of years. That, of course, is sheer nonsense. It takes an elephant a long tune to grow up, and it takes him a long time to wear out. Well treated, he should 1 live to be a hundred. That is the age to which the eagle is supposed to live, but some people put down the age he may reach as two , hundred years. Even that is young compared with the life of a whale. This ) can be shown to last for five hundred years. Indeed, some whales that [ have been caught are believed to be a thousand years old. In the following tables the extreme ages of animals like the whale and eagle and tortoise are not given. The tables merely set out the ages to which certain animals often live. Rabbit, 5 years; sheep, 12 years; cat, 13 years; dog, 15 years; goat, 15 years, cow, 25 years; pig, 25 years; | horse, 27 years; camel. 40 years; lion | 40 years; elephant, 100 years; croco- | dile, 300 years.