LONGEVITY IN ANIMALS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 153, 16 July 1937, Page 15

LONGEVITY IN ANIMALS

(Own Corresnonclent-

Tortoises "Good for Centuries" ELEPHANT'S 170 YEARS

-By Air Mail.)

LONDON, June 16. The age limit of animals, like that of. our own speeies, is a subject that will never cease to excite interest, and the matter has lately been brought into prominence by Mr Guy Dollman, of the Naturai History Museum at South Kensington, who gives an instance of an Asiatic elephant living for 170 years. • The elephant in question, mentioned in a, translation of Joao Ribeiro's "Cealao," by JDr Pieris (1925), appears to have been adult prior to the siege of Colombo in 1566. The animal, "Ortela," commanded by its size, strength, and sagacity such respect that it was spared when all other animals were eaten during the protracted siege, and lived under the Dutch conquerors for nearly a century and a half. As Mr Dollman rightly says, the case is "very astounding." The elephant' s age can. be roughJy determined by its teeth, but there have been previously no authentie instances of these animals evan approaching Ortela' s longevity. The late P, G. Sanderson, one of the greatest authorities on the Asiatic elephant, • instances an animal, caught as a three-year-old baby in 1805, and which was in its prime sevent,y-one years later. He expressed the belief that elephants might live for a centui-y and a half, a view shared by a few native hunters who, however, admifc the normal life span to be eighty years. A wide survey of animals' known ages seems to suggest that there is a certain correlation between longevity and size. As a rule, the larger the body machine the longer it takes to wear out. Here, again, however, generalisation is dangerous. Little is known of the life span of cetacians, the largest of all living animals. Many large reptiles are invariably looked upon as far exceeding the human limit. George, the Zoo's largest alligator, for example, though definitely known to be not more than forty years old, is persistently represented in the Press as being over a century, no authoritative statement to the contrary serving to dispel this cherished illusion. The few remaining giant tortoises are, however, in a different category. One still living at St. Heleng is known to have shared that island with Napoleon in his exile, and the animal, lately seen by Dr Philip Gosse, appeared to be in l'ull enjoyment of his faculties — such as they are — and to be in common pariance, "good for centuries.".