Kathy Benjamin
6 Amazing Animals That Practically Lived Forever
by Kathy Benjamin - January 25, 2012 - 3:39 PM

Here are six legendary animals that lived a lot longer than most pets.

1. Adwaita the Tortoise (1750-2006)

Even with the long life expectancy of giant tortoises, an Aldabra Giant Tortoise named Adwaita blows all others away with a life lasting around 255 years. Estimates put his birth date around 1750, making him an entire generation older than the United States of America.

The tortoise was originally owned by a man named General Robert Clive, an important member of the East India Company, who got addicted to opium and killed himself in 1774. Barely a toddler at that time, Adwaita bummed around for a bit before eventually being transferred to an Indian zoo in 1875, where he spent the rest of his life eating and…that’s pretty much it. After his death in 2006, carbon dating on his shell confirmed his age, making him quite possibly the oldest living creature ever, and almost certainly the oldest living vertebrate.

2. Lin Wang the Elephant (1917-2003)

The average lifespan for an elephant can be anything from 50-70 years, but the oldest elephant ever was named Lin Wang, who died in a Taiwanese zoo at the ripe old age of 86. But he managed to fit a whole lot of awesome into his life before then.

During World War II, the young pachyderm was recruited to move supplies for the Japanese army before being captured by the Chinese along with a dozen other elephants. At the end of the war, Lin Wang managed to survive the trek back to China from Burma, which was so difficult that it killed six of the other elephants. For the next few years, he was used to build monuments and joined a circus.

When China fell to the Communists in 1949, many people fled to Taiwan, and they brought Lin Wang along with them; within two years he was the only elephant out of the original 13 captured during the war that was still alive. Once safely in Taiwan he was finally placed in a zoo to live out his retirement in peace.

As he grew older, Lin Wang became famous and received the absolute devotion of the Taiwanese. Starting in 1983, his birthday was celebrated every year. Even his transfer from one zoo to another brought thousands of people out to watch. When he finally died in 2003, tens of thousands of people left cards and flowers outside the zoo, including the then President of Taiwan.

3. Big Bertha the Cow (1944-1993)

While most cows consider 25 years to be extremely old age, Big Bertha was born while World War II was still raging and died after most of the people reading this were born. In between, she managed to fit in a lot more excitement than a normal cow. Besides pushing out 39 children, for which she was awarded a Guinness World Record for most calves from one cow, she also managed to help raise $75,000 for cancer by making celebrity appearances at cattle fairs.

Being a true Irish lass, Bertha regularly led her local St. Patrick’s Day parade, but since the noise and all the people were a bit much for her, her owner always calmed her nerves by feeding her whiskey beforehand.

Bertha was eventually awarded her second Guinness honor for Oldest Ever Cow. When she died, the locals held a wake for her in her favorite pub, which was “packed to suffocation” with people toasting her memory. If you ever want to go see her, her stuffed body is on display at a farm in Ireland.

4. Charlie the Macaw (1899(?)-present)

Charlie is a crotchety old blue macaw that may have already lived through three centuries and is still going strong. While it’s impossible to know the exact date he was born, estimates put it around the very end of the 19th century, and even if those estimates are off by a few decades, he has still lasted a lot longer than the average 50 year life span of normal macaws.

His current owner claims he was a favorite pet of Winston Churchill’s, who supposedly acquired Charlie in 1937 after the macaw had already managed to outlive two previous owners. While the Churchill claim is hotly debated, what is certain is that whoever did own Charlie during World War II taught him to say some very dirty phrases, mostly about Hitler and the Nazis.

His speech is so vulgar that his current owner, who says he purchased Charlie from the Churchill estate after Winston died in 1965, was forced to keep him instead of selling him in his pet shop as he had originally intended.

5. Tish the Goldfish (1956-1999)

Remember those fair games where you could win a goldfish? These are an important part of childhood, because they teach kids about the briefness of life, when the fish inevitably dies 3 days later. If you are lucky it might live a year or two. That’s probably what Mr. and Mrs. Hand where expecting when they let their son Peter try to win a pair of fish in 1956. Little did they know they would be taking care of one of those fish into their 70s.

After a few suicide attempts in his youth, Tish settled down with his bowl mate Tosh. That carnival worker must have been feeding all of his fish something pretty amazing, because Tosh didn’t expire until 1975. Normally that would be pretty impressive for a goldfish if his friend Tish hadn’t made lasting 19 years look pathetic, by living until the ripe old age of 43.

A year before he died, Tish was awarded the title of Oldest Goldfish by the Guinness Book of World Records.

6. Matilda the Chicken (1990-2006)

Keith and Donna Barton bought Matilda for $10 at a fair in 1990. Instead of putting her in a chicken coop or eating her or any of those normal things you expect people to do with chickens, they put Matilda to work as a part of their magic act.

They probably expected to replace their poultry assistant a lot sooner than they did, though; while most chickens only live 7-8 years, Matilda was still kicking after 15. She never laid a single egg in all that time, an abnormality that some chicken experts think may have directly contributed to her long life.

In 2001, Matilda became the first chicken to place in the Guinness Book of World Records as “World’s Oldest Living Chicken.” This led to the second horrible thing her owners put her through: a spot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In her later years, Matilda used her celebrity for good, attending many charity functions. She died in 2006.

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Comments (29)

  1. And I thought my 50lb mutt was old at 17 and kicking. Amazing!

    posted by Sara P on 1-25-2012 at 3:04 pm

  2. I keep reading about animal one, the old tortoise; however, no matter how many times I read this I cannot wrap my mind around how crazy it is.

    posted by Guy on 1-25-2012 at 3:35 pm

  3. I did not know that you could by chickens at the fair.

    posted by Bert on 1-25-2012 at 3:50 pm

  4. *Buy, that is. Dang fat fingers.

    posted by Bert on 1-25-2012 at 3:50 pm

  5. I love this –

    I’ve read that tortoises can, theoretically, as their bodies don’t “age” – they die due to disease or predation, not their bodies simply “wearing out” as humans do.

    posted by Leslie on 1-25-2012 at 4:02 pm

  6. Sorry,

    meant to say tortoises can theoretically LIVE FOREVER

    posted by Leslie on 1-25-2012 at 4:03 pm

  7. Know what else won’t die, my mother in law. I kid I kid.

    posted by They Call Me Bruce on 1-25-2012 at 4:44 pm

  8. I had an African clawed frog (sold as part of a Grow-a-Frog kit I received for my tenth birthday) live until the ripe old age of 18. That was pretty good, especially since they usually only live about five years. Apparently the oldest one was 27 when it died.

    He didn’t die of old age, either – he died from (I think) switching to city water from well water.

    posted by Bob on 1-25-2012 at 4:47 pm

  9. Our goldfish Kevin just passed away. He was 8 years old!! We’ve had goldfish before and after we won Kevin at a church carnival, and the longest we had one last before was 8 months.

    R.I.P. Kevin

    posted by YoSan on 1-25-2012 at 5:35 pm

  10. Apparently, MF thinks its readership is 19 & under. LOL.

    posted by Jenn on 1-25-2012 at 5:51 pm

  11. Big Bertha the Cow, must have been a Guiness drinker. Doing that thing that Homer does when thinking of donuts right now.

    posted by Jov on 1-25-2012 at 7:18 pm

  12. My grandma just had to put her cat down and he was 22! He was siamese and usually they only live 12 to 13 years. None of us can even remember him when he was a baby!

    posted by Chrissy on 1-25-2012 at 8:30 pm

  13. I had a dog who lived for 21 years! She was 4 (possibly 5) when we adopted her and had had numerous litters of puppies. A Bichon-Frise/Poodle mix, she was remarkably healthy and spry; though she did develop gluacoma and arthritis in her late teens. I’ve heard super long lives are common for this mix of breeds.

    BTW, isn’t there a tree that is older than the tortoise? If so, wouldn’t that be the oldest living thing?

    posted by Brandy on 1-25-2012 at 9:15 pm

  14. The national zoo in dc has one of the oldest living sloths ever known. She was captured young in the wild in 1967 and is still alive and kicking. Sloths usually only live 10-15 years in the wild, but this one is close to 50.

    posted by Dd on 1-25-2012 at 9:16 pm

  15. Actually most Siamese cats do live long lives. My mother in law had two that lived to be 19 & 20.

    posted by beth on 1-25-2012 at 10:04 pm

  16. Whiskey for the cow… hmmm. I read an article today that ethanol can increase the lifespan of the C. Elegans worm. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe I should have a drink…

    posted by Mark on 1-25-2012 at 10:13 pm

  17. I am impressed that the tortoise’s age was confirmed by carbon dating.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 1-25-2012 at 10:19 pm

  18. Goldfish actually can live a long time if they’re cared for like other fish and are kept away from open bowls and grubby-handed little kids. I had two that lived together for over 5 years.

    posted by Cheryl on 1-25-2012 at 10:44 pm

  19. Also the Siamese cat I had when uneasy a freshman in Highschool lived over 20 years and the one I have now is 15.( and still going strong!)

    posted by beth on 1-25-2012 at 11:16 pm

  20. Jenn, you’ve got it backwards. The article says the cow died after most readers were born, not before.

    My ex-husband has a little weird turtle named Stumpy who is at least 20 years old. They thought they had a boy turtle until Stumpy laid an egg last year for the first time. He is no giant tortoise, but they have no idea what his true lifespan will be.

    posted by Candi on 1-25-2012 at 11:57 pm

  21. Thanks for the good new about siamese cats. :) Mine is 14 now and i’ve been morbidly wondering when to expect his departure.

    posted by Jodi Matt on 1-26-2012 at 7:22 am

  22. I had a calico cat growing up and she lived to be 19. It was weird when she the day finally came because I had her since I was 1 so basically my entire life at the time.

    Today I’m just trying to get through last night’s loss of one of my guinea pigs. He lived about as long as they’re expected. We weren’t sure exactly how old he was since we weren’t his original owners. Doesn’t make it easier.

    posted by nihil on 1-26-2012 at 9:00 am

  23. The reason the tortoise died at age 255 is that its DNA has a binary age counter that has 8 bits, so it overflowed. At least that’s the sort of theory a computer geek like myself comes up with.

    posted by Dan on 1-26-2012 at 9:15 am

  24. I have an Everglades rat snake (regional morph of the black rat snake) who was an adult when I bought him (a reject from someone’s breeding program), and has lived for 17 years since. I have no idea what his actual age is, but it’s past 20. He acts kind of stiff and cranky, but he’s been acting kind of stiff and cranky for a decade already, so this is nothing new.

    I also had a Russian dwarf hamster that lived for about 40 months, including a trip to the vet to stitch up damage from an attack by his own son (we got a vet out of bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning) … and who paid his vet bill via his offspring; I was the first person in the area breeding the lil’ guys, and pet shops were paying me handsomly for the offspring; Boris was one of my best breeders, as well as a wonderful father (yeah, they’re VERY different from Syrian hamsters that way) and incredibly friendly to humans. He finally died from cancer.

    posted by Worldwalker on 1-26-2012 at 9:21 am

  25. Poor Matilda the Chicken. No one should have to be on the Jay Leno show. Her career must been over at that point.

    posted by dianeygirl on 1-26-2012 at 10:04 am

  26. My aunt’s cat Tail, who was a mutt kitty born in her home, lived about 24 years. He died when I was 26 and there is a photo of me playing with him as a kitten and I was 2-years-old. Poor boy had lost his sight, hearing, and likely had cancer for years before he let go, but my aunt was too afraid to take him to the vet and not come home with him.
    Also, I had a fair gold fish live 8 years. He was too large to be flushed, so we buried him in the garden.

    posted by Jo on 1-26-2012 at 3:11 pm

  27. My grandfather has goldfish in a pond that he’s had before I was born. This article got me to thinking about them, so I asked my mother when he got the goldfish (which started out as normal crappy small goldfishy goldfish) and she said he already had them when she started going out with my dad (26 years ago). They are enormous, about the length of my arm. Definitely longer than a foot and definitely older than 26.

    posted by Toats on 1-27-2012 at 8:33 am

  28. I am currently looking at my cat who is 24 years old. He’s blind, senile and constantly gets lost in the corners of rooms. When he walks he bellows like you wouldn’t believe (seriously, visitors are shocked and I suspect the neighbours think I have a hidden sex dungeon)

    posted by tassie devil on 1-30-2012 at 10:47 pm

  29. “Jenn, you’ve got it backwards. The article says the cow died after most readers were born, not before.”

    No, unfortunately you’ve got it backwards — most of the readers were born, then the cow died. Most of us are, in fact, older than 19.

    posted by Joanna on 2-6-2012 at 2:19 pm

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