LONG-LIVED ANIMALS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 60, 4 December 1926, Page 24

LONG-LIVED ANIMALS

NO RELATION BETWEEN SIZE AND AGE

A giant tortoise that was an intimate i>l the great Napoleon is still living on the island of St. Helena. 1 ortoisvs attain a greater age than ,mi utliei annuals, and, according to land Rothschild, an authority on lliese I creatures, several examples tn the j '1 ring .Museum, weighing over ooblb., i must Have been close on three centuries old when scientific eiinu*.- put an end to then protracted existences. As the lute when the St Helena veteran was exiled from its native island of Aldabra is not recorded, and its age and size at the time are not known, the reptile is not in a position to lay claim to being the world’s oldest inhabitant. The small European and North A Incan land tortoises which are yearly imported to England by the shipload, will, under proper conditions, live to a ripe, if not sensational, old age One of these which died quite recently was for ninety-six years the pet ol successive generation's of a family m Cornwall Only a tew months before its death the animal on a very hot day pursued tlie gardener with such determination, biting at Ins trousers, and butting at his feet, that it had to be shut up in the house A land tortoise is ‘stated to have belonged to the Bishops of Peterborough for about ‘2*2o vears ( whilst the shell oi another ecclesiastical specimen—one acquired bv Archbishop Laud in 1628, and which died 105 years later, is still exhibited to visitors at Lambeth PalIt is an established fact . that the duration ol life of the lower races of mankind is shorter than that of the more civilised It will be learnt without surprise, therefore, that the average age attained by our poor relations, file apes, is not great, at least as judged from the human standpoint Their potential longevity certainly does not exceed forty vears. Mickv the chimpanzee who for a period held the proud position of ‘‘father of the London Zoo,” lived for twenty-eight years in captivity, and was about three years old on his arrival at the Regent’s Park menagerie, where he died of old age. Although amongst mammals large animals as a rule live to a greater age than small ones, there is no constant relation between their size and potential longevity Thus the maximum duration of life of a giraffe is less than that of a bat Such gigantic animals as elephants and whales are credited with centuries of existence They, however, reach their maximum size in a comparatively short period, and are often bv no means as venerable as they appear. Jumbo, who measured eleven feet in height and weighed 6| tons, attained bis maximum development in twenty years. According to Metchnikofl and Chalmers Mitchell elephants in proportion to thei r size have a low potential longevity lower than that .of man There is, in fact, no authenticated record of an elephant of over 70 vears The official lists of the Indian Government, published some vears ago, show that of 138 elephants only one lived for more than twenty years after it had been captured. It has been assumed that giant whales, which mav reach a length of over 100 feet ami a weight of 80 or 00 tons, are more than a century old. Dr Frederic A. Lucas, of the American Museum of National History, has recently completed a study of these monsters, and he finds that thev reach their full size in comparatively few vears. Our ideas as to their remarkablv longevity must, therefore, undergo revision The hippopotamus and the rhinocerous both flourish under captive onditions, and we are therefore able to give fairly reliable indications cf their potential longevity In proportion to their size and weight they are shortlived The ’once notorious 'Guv Fawkes,” a hippo, born in the London Zoo in 1872, died of senile decay at the age of 39. whilst an Indian rhino,

which arrived at the gardens when about 2 years old, likewise died of senility after only forty., sears of captivity

The actual ages to which the mammals and birds in the London'Zoological Gardens have attained l-ave been given by Chalmers Mitchell The records of the carnivora support the v'ew that they are fairly long lived-, bears having reached 33 vears, .lions and tigers 17, sea-lions 17, hyenas and jackals 14, badgers 12, and foxes

4-todents, when we take their size into consideration, are to be regarded as living very long lives, .the figures ranging from twenty years in the porcupine, 15 tn the squirrel, down to 3 in the dormouse. Many birds attain considerable ages. The following are some authenticated records Egyptian vulture 118, golden eagle 104 parrot 102, swan 70, raven 69. eagle owl 68. herring gull 44, crane 43 pelican 41, peacock 40, dove 40, stork 36, ostrich 30, oystercatcher 30, domestic fowl 30, cassowary 26, duck 26, nightingale 25, skylark 24, goldfinch 21, pheasant 21. canary 20, kiwi 20

The above figures show that in the birds as in the mammals there is no relation between longevity and size. Thus an ostrich has no hope of attaining to half the age of a number of birds less than one-third its bulk. Fish stories are notoriously’ untrustworthy, declares Captain E G. Bonlenger in the “Dailv Telegraph.” It is not surprising, therefore, to find that certain fish are credited with enormous spans of life. The voracious carp that appeal to the generosity of the public in the lake at Fontainebleau are reputed to be anything from two to three centuries old The lake certainly harbours some enormous snecimens. stated to be yvhite with age. The fish are . old; perhaps 40 or even 50 vears, but their “rime of age” is onlv to be attributed to a fungoid disease which coats them with a dense but tinromantic frost. A French historian disposes of the fable of their antiquity by observing that in 1789, lf>3o. and 1848 the fish ponds of Fontainebleau fell under the control of the sovereign people, who loved the carp too well to permit size or age to be an obstacle to their ministering to their stomachs ' "

The pike is another fish reputed to be very loilg-lived, but there is no proof that such is the case. The skeleton of a “pike” seventeen feet long and stated to be 267 years old, wag until recent vears preserved at ’Mannheim. However, an examination of its bones by a specialist furnished proof of the fact that the giant had* been manufactured out of a numberof smaller fish.

Sturgeon and catfish liv to a fair age. A number" of fresh-water', sturgeons living- in Captain Vipanls private aquarium at Stibbingdon Hall were obtained from Russia over 40 years ago, whilst a giant catfish from the Danube, which is at_ the present time an attraction at the London Zoo, is known to be over 50 years old The latter fish and another specimen of its kind still living in the lake at Woburn are the survivors of three imported bv Lord Odo Russell in the vear 1874.

Another ancient inhabitant of the aquarium is the four-foot long giant salamander of Japan, with a record dating back nearly forty vears.’ The growth of the salamander, which was originallv described as a fossil man, “Homo diluvii testis,” has been studied bv the writer. Young specimens put on an inch a year, but after attaining a length of two feet the rate of growth is considerably’ reduced; that of the 40-vear-old specimen being less than oneeighth of an inch As the creature lias still more than a foot to grow before attaining to its maximum size, its potential duration of life is probably in the neighbourhood of 120 years, an age only exceeded bv the members of the tortoise tribe.