DURATION OF LIFE IN ANIMALS.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4383, 20 January 1883, Page 4

DURATION OF LIFE IN ANIMALS.

A Home paper says -.—Camels live from forty to fifty years ; horses average from twenty five to thirty;. oxen, about twenty ; sheep, eight or nine; and dogs, twelve to ' fourteen. Concerning the ages attained by rnon-domesticated animals only a few isolated facts are. known. The Easit Indians believe that the life period of the elephant is about 300 years, instances being recorded of these animals having lived' 130 years in confinement after cap ture at an unknown age. Whales are estimated to reach the age of 400 years. Some reptiles are very long-lived, an instance being furnistid by a tortoise which was confined in 1633 and existed until 1753, when he perished by accident. Birds sometimes reach a great age, the eagle and ■ the swan having been known to live one hundred years. The longevity of fish is often remarkable. The carp has been known to live '200 years; common river trout, 50 years; and the pike ninety years, while Gesner—a Swiss naturalist — relates that.a pike caught in 1497 bore a ring' recording the capture of the same fish 267 years before. Insects are very •hort lived, usually completing the term of their existence in a.few weeks or months. Some even perish within a few hours after emerging from a grub state, and die upon the very day of entering on their Hew life. As a general rule, not to be applied too closely, larger types of animals live longer -than smaller." It does not mention the fact of the case of a healthy flea which was known to bite an old whisky hand of thirty years' experienoe, and turning its eyes skywards expired placidly. .-,