Life in the wild is very hard. Just finding enough food is a major task and dodging predators occurs every day. The planet is billions of years old, yet most creatures including man are only alive a very short time. Humans live a good deal longer than most creatures, but even a 100 years is just a drop in the bucket compared to how long earth has been around.
It is surprising how short a time animals are on the earth. The time an animal is alive is calculated in several ways. There is the life expectancy and life span. Life expectance is rated on how long an animal is expected to live from birth or some other time in its life. For example, an American ‘s current life expectance is about 79 years. However, the life span for a human is well over a 100 years. The longest a human was ever recorded to live is 129 years. However, there are species of animals that can live to 230 years, or even longer. The longest living animal species is a mussel that lived an estimated 507 years. There is also a Greenland shark that has lived 400 years. A tortoise died a few years ago in an Australian zoo that was 176 years old.
A number of species of fish have lived more than a 100 years. The Rougheye Rockfish has lived to 205 years and Lake Sturgeon has lived up to 150 years. The Orange Roughy, which is a common ocean fish, lives to 100 years.
On the other side, many local wild animals have short lives. A blacktail deer has a live span of about 16 years but few live more than 7 years. For example, studies done by the University of California scientists show that only 8 percent of fawns born in Lake and Mendocino counties will live a year, Predation by coyotes, mountain lions and bears take massive toll on the young deer. Disease also plays a major role in the life expectancy of wildlife. For example, deer are browsers and feed on young green shoots of plant life. When they are feeding they often ingest sand and gravel which will wear down their teeth. They end up with an abscess or a jaw infection. The result is that they can no longer feed and they lose weight and become weak which makes them perfect prey for a predator.
Clear Lake is known for its large bass population, but what most fishermen don’t know is that bass have a relatively short life. A bass can live to be 16 years old but very few make it that long and most die before they are 7 years old. The current Clear Lake record bass of 17.52 pounds was caught in 1990. Biologists took scale samples and aged the fish. It was determined that the bass was approximately 14 years old and was nearing the end of its life. Clear Lake has thousands of catfish and they have a life expectancy of up to 20 years. Crappie can live to 20 years but few make it past 10 years. The oldest recorded crappie was 15 years.
Animals such as mountain lions and coyotes have to chase down their prey to get a meal. Once they reach a certain age they no longer can run fast enough and they end up starving to death.
Most insects live short lives. A common housefly can live about 15 days and a mosquito can make it to 20 days. There is a species of termites that lives to 50 years.
Many animals suffer from the same diseases as humans which includes cancer, heart disease, diabetes and infections. For example, when a deer breaks its leg it can’t be fitted with a cast. Thousands of deer and other animals are killed by cars.
Unlike humans, which can usually receive the best medical care in the world, a wild animal can’t go to the doctor. Even the slightest infection can result in death. Starvation also takes a terrible toll on wild animals. If the food source isn’t there even the healthiest animal will die.
There is an excellent web site that lists many species of animals and how long they live. It’s called “Life Spans of Animals.” It tells how large animals generally live longer because they have a physically slower way of life. In other words, a small animal such as a mouse has a very rapid heartbeat which can beat as fast 200 beats per minute. The result is that it basically wears out quicker. On other side a tortoise has a heart rate of about 30 beats per second.
It all goes to show that we live in a complicated world.
