THE AGES OF ANIMALS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 April 1912, Page 62

THE AGES OF ANIMALS

Undoubtedly, the longest lived animal on earth is the whale, its span of existence being estimated by Cuvier at 1000 years. £he next largest elephant, will, under favorable conditions, live "400 years. When Alexander the Great conquered Porus, king of India, he took a great elephant that had fought gallantly for the defeated king, named him Ajax, dedicated him to the sun, ; placed , upon him a metal band with the inscription, ‘ Alexander, the son of Jupiter, dedicated Ajax to the sun.' The elephant was found, alive, three hundred and fifty years later. ; % : The average age of cats is fifteen years of squirrels seven-or eight years; of rabbits, seven; a bear rarely exceeds twenty years;, a wolf, twenty; a fox, fourteen to sixteen. Lions are comparatively longlived, instances having been recorded where they reached the age of seventy years. Pigs have been known to live to the age of twenty years, and horses to sixty, - but the average age of the horse is twenty five to thirty. Camels sometimes live to the age of one hundred, and stags are very .long-lived,- one having been taken by, Charles VI. in the forest of Senlis which bore about its neck a collar on which was engraved, ‘ Caesar hoc mihi donavit.’ * Whether or not this stag had actually lived, since the days of one of the Caesars, it is impossible to say, but the evidence seems good. - Eagles occasionally, and ravens frequently, reach the age of 100 years, and swans have been known to live 300 years. • A tortoise has been known to live 107 years. - ' ■■ ■