What Animals Live the Longest?

Disclosure: This is a guest post submitted by Kira B.

Yes, wouldn’t it be just wonderful to say that the longest living animal is us? It’s not so difficult to imagine really, when you think about it, after all many humans now live until they’re over a hundred – if they take care of themselves.

Make a will, no matter how long you intend living

As you can imagine it’s important to make sure you’ve written a will, no matter how hold you think you’re going to live for – and make sure it’s clear. Secondly, if you’re disputing a will and you’re worried about the outcome go to the disputing wills blog where you may find some helpful advice.

In the meantime, wouldn’t it be rather good to find out exactly which animals live the longest.

Ocean Quahog

If you thought that humans were pretty special living until they’re 100 then beat this, the ocean quahog lives until it’s at least 400 years old. It’s a cockle shaped little devil that lives inside a shell. Their home is in a muddy and sandy little hole. Some people eat them, but that’s just plain mean really, perhaps they’re hoping they’ll inherit the quahogs ability to live longer.

Giant Tortoise

The giant tortoise isn’t far behind, living until it’s at least 255 years old, that’s a long time. They can vary in size and although they may not move fast they certainly know how to live, well they know how to live for a very long time, put it that way.

Elephant

A little less impressive, but a life lived well is the elephant, which lives for about 70 years in the wild. That’s a long time for a large animal. In captivity they don’t live as long, surviving for less than half the time they’d live if they were in the wild.

Bowhead Whale

A bowhead Whale can live up to 200 years old and lives in the waters of the Arctic. They can grow to nearly 60 feet long, what’s more scientists found a new organ in the bowhead whales in 2013 which is in the roof of their mouths; it’s used to regulate heat and detect prey.

So there we are, we can live as long as an elephant, but nowhere near as long as Tortoise or a bowhead Whale, I guess we must be thankful for what we can get, being mere humans.