Untitled Document
 The
life expectancy of human
beings is getting longer. We live about 80 years, yet some people
can even live to be more than 100 years old! Even though humans are not
the biggest, strongest, or fastest creatures on the Earth, we
live longer than almost any other animal. The mammal with the longest
recorded lifespan is man. But are
there any animals that live longer than humans?
You may be surprised, but some animals
can live longer than us! Can you guess which animals they are? Did
you say elephants? Well, it’s true that they can live for a very long
time, but they don’t live longer than humans. In fact, the Asian elephant
lives the longest after humans - one elephant lived to be 84 years
old!
According to the Guinness
Book of Animal Facts and Feats, the animal with the longest recorded
life span was a tortoise of the Seychelles
Islands in the Indian Ocean. It lived about 200 years! Surprisingly, a type of clam called the quahog also
lives longer than most people. It can live about 150 years! Some sea
turtles also live for over 120 years.
Some birds such as parrots, eagles, ostriches, and owls also have long average life spans. Parrots
can survive up to 100 years; eagles up
to 55 years; ostriches up to 60 years; and owls up to 70 years. The
pocket gopher is the mammal
with the shortest life span - it lives only about 20 months. |
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