• Question: How long do you live

    Asked by chloecousins123 to Hazel Dormouse, Catshark, Brown garden snail, Emperor Dragonfly, Barn Owl, Scotch Thistle, St Kilda Wren, Common Crane on 7 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by kajaxoxo, daisylolaoco, animalover2807, emzzz, abzzz, harrykilner, jeffrey, sbyrnes771, miamia, rosscoeweir, aday261, anyanya, sgirl100, hannahannah, rmckeag934, ryeaman747, maxread.
    • Photo: Emperor Dragonfly

      Emperor Dragonfly answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      Depends on whether you are referring to the adult (flying in the air) or nymph (grubbing in the mud) stages…?

      Adults emerge in the spring / summer and spend as long as possible flying, eating, chasing, mating and laying eggs… until it gets too cold or they run out of food (when the mosquitoes, gnats and midges die out). This can be as long as late September, if the weather is warm. Eggs are laid all through the summer and the nymphs hatch and grow as much as they can until winter. They then burrow down in the mud and wait it out while the weather is really cold, to emerge in the spring summer as adults. So an an adult Emperor Dragonfly might live as little as 3-4 months, but the nymphs can live just short of a year. In some other dragonfly species the nymphs will stay in the ponds for another year.. making them twice as long lived!

    • Photo: Tomeu the snail

      Tomeu the snail answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      It takes us about one year to reach adulthood, and we usually live for 2 to 5 years (unless you squish me). I have heard of one that lived for 7 years.

      Did you know that we spend lots of that time hibernating, from November to April, without eating anything at all?

    • Photo: Lesser-Spotted Catshark

      Lesser-Spotted Catshark answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      Reports suggest that in the wild, catsharks can live about 12-13 years on average. To estimate the age of a shark, scientists count the number of rings which form in their vertebrae each year, kind of like counting tree rings.

      One more fun fact is that the oldest living vertebrate ever recorded is a greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) which was shown to be over 400 years old using radiocarbon dating!

    • Photo: Hazel Dormouse

      Hazel Dormouse answered on 8 Nov 2017:


      In captivity we have been known to live for up to six years, whereas in the wild we have been recorded to live for four years so on average five years. That may seem quite long for an animal so small but considering over half that time the Hazel Dormouse will be asleep, it isn’t very long at all!

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