Wild animals don’t survive long
They don't have the luxury of visiting a doctor when they're sick or hurt
The COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed millions of lives worldwide is a good indication just how fragile life on earth can be. The planet is billions of years old, yet most creatures including man are here only a short time. Humans live a good deal longer than most creatures, but even reaching
100 years ago is just a drop in the bucket compared to how long this planet has been around.
It is surprising how short a time animals spend on the earth. How long an animal is alive is calculated in several ways. There is the life expectancy and life span. Life expectancy is rated on how long an animal is expected to live from birth. For example, a human living in America has a life expectancy of about 79 years. However, the life span for a human is well above 100 years. The oldest human on record was 129 years. However, there are species of animals that live up to 230 years, some even longer. The longest-living animal species is a mussel estimated at 507 years. There is also a Greenland shark that has lived 400 years. A tortoise in Australia died a few years ago that was 176 years old.
A number of fish species have lived more than 100 years. The rougheye rockfish has lived up to 205 years and lake surgeon have lived up to 150 years. The orange roughy, which is a common ocean fish, lives up to 100 years.
On the other side, many local wild animals have short lives. A blacktail deer has a life span of about 16 years but few make it past seven years. Studies done by University of California scientists show that only 8 percent of fawns born in Lake and Mendocino counties live a year. Predation by coyotes, mountain lions and bears takes a massive toll on the young deer.
Disease also plays a major role in the life expectancy of wildlife. Deer
are browsers and feed on the young and green shoots of plant life. When they are feeding they often ingest sand and gravel, which wears down their teeth, and they can easily end up with an abcess or a jaw infection. The result is they can no longer feed, they lose weight and become weak, which in turn makes them perfect prey for a predator.
Clear Lake is known for its large bass population. What most fishermen don’t know is that bass have a relatively short life. While a bass can live to be 16 years old, very few make it that long and most die before they reach their seventh year. The current Clear Lake record bass of 17.52 pounds was caught in 1990. Biologists took scale samples and aged the fish, which was determined to be approximately 14 years old.
Clear Lake also has thousands of catfish and they have a life expectancy of up to 20 years. Crappie can live up to 20 years but few make it past 10 years. The oldest recorded crappie was 15 years old.
Animals such as mountain lions and coyotes have to chase 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. However, one species of termites can live up to 50 years.
Many animals suffer from the same diseases as humans, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Common infections and injuries for human plague animals as well. For example, when a deer breaks its leg, it can’t be fitted with a cast. Thousands of deer and other animals are also 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 website 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 and the heart burns out quicker. On the other side, a tortoise has a very slow heart rate.
It all goes to show that we live in a complicated world.