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Animal Life Spans
By Linda | April 17, 2008
This last weekend I took my daughter to a Girl Scout event where we learned about various scaly, furry and feathery denizens of the rain forest. We both learned quite a bit about these animals including the fact that several varieties of parrots can live to more than 85 years of age! This got me wondering about the life spans of other animals. I know I’ve heard many of these fact separately but thought it was interesting to see them all together. Here is a table of animal lifespans from the shortest to the longest:
Animal Life Spans
The following table represents the expected life expectancy of 35 animals.
| Shrew | 2 yrs |
|---|---|
| Mouse | 4 yrs |
| Guinea Pig | 5 yrs |
| Garter Snake | 6 yrs |
| Goat | 10 yrs |
| Skunk | 12 yrs |
| Crocodile | 13 yrs |
| Fox | 14 yrs |
| Bat | 15 yrs |
| Porpoise | 15 yrs |
| Reindeer | 15 yrs |
| Wolf | 16 yrs |
| Rattlesnake | 18 yrs |
| Beaver | 20 yrs |
| Domestic Dog | 20 yrs |
| Python | 20 yrs |
| Cardinal | 22 yrs |
| Goldfish | 25 yrs |
| Domestic Cat | 30 yrs |
| Zebra | 30 yrs |
| Grizzly Bear | 34 yrs |
| Blue Whale | 35 yrs |
| Camel | 40 yrs |
| Rhinoceros | 40 yrs |
| Hippoptamus | 41 yrs |
| Buffalo | 45 yrs |
| Chimpanzee | 50 yrs |
| Horse | 50 yrs |
| Ostrich | 50 yrs |
| Sturgeon | 50 yrs |
| Alligator | 56 yrs |
| Indian Elephant | 70 yrs |
| Parrot | 100 yrs |
| Box Turtle | 123 yrs |
| Giant Tortoise | 127 yrs |
*Please note that the numbers given above reflect maximum lifespans as opposed to average lifespans.
The animal with the shortest known life span is the gastrotrich (a minute aquatic animal) - It lives its whole life time in just three days!
A clam dredged from Icelandic waters is believed to have lived for 400 years - it may be the longest-lived animal known to science. To read more about this geriatric clam, CLICK HERE.
My kids just love to hear about superlatives (the biggest, oldest, …est) - To read about the fastest swimmers, flyers and runners CLICK HERE.
Topics: Animal Kingdom, Nature, Science Factoids |
April 17th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
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July 5th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I think you must be wrong on the horse life span. I have never known anyone to have a horse with an average lie span of 50 years. Horses rarely live beyong 30-35 years. It is unusual for a horse to love to be 50 years old. I have never heard of this and I have had horses all of my life!