AN ANIMAL'S LIFETIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 21 (Supplement)

AN ANIMAL'S LIFETIME.

How long do , annuals live? Wβ have all asked that question many times, and ones- a well-known naturalist answered it for us. Dogs arc two years in growing, and authorities agree on 15 to 20 as tliq old age attained by dogs and pigs. Ulysses , dog, presumably full-grown when the hero went away, recognised his master after 20 years' absence. Cats; on the other hand, grow in ono year, and live to bo 20. The hare is fully grown in one year and old at seven, but I know of one .which reached 12 years. Squirrels grow for fivo or sis months, are old at six years, but have lived to bo eight years old. Mice grow for tlireo months and havo lived for six years. Sheep mature in two years, are considered old at eight to 10, but have reached 15 years, 'I'heso are tho domestic sheep; there is good evidence —in the rings on their horns—that the wild shceji reach, afc least doublo ; these ages. Similarly, the ago tally which, each of the horned- cattle has in its horn rings offers .evidence, which, cannot, be dis« puted. Cattle aro adult at three years, and attain the age of 20 with. , a possibility of 30 or -10. Horses are. three or four years iu growing, and live to bo 15 or 20, with a possibility of 40 years, although, they; rarely attain that. Still one famous horse—-"Old Billy," of Manchester—is said to have died at the ago of pi..