How long do plants and animals live? It turned out that, in comparison with them, our life is not so sweet.

For instance, inhabitants of the Queensland state (Australia) say the most ancient tree, the macrotsamia, whose age not less than 12 thousand years, grows in this state. The height of the tree doesn’t exceed 6 meters. To judge carefully of the tree age, it’s necessary to study its rings, and this can be done only the death of the tree. The cypress, arising above the cemetery of the Santa Maria de Tule settlement in Mexico is considered to be one of the most aged trees. This tree is still in full vigour. Diameter of the tree amounts to 16 meters; 20 people can hardly clasp it.

American sequoia with less than 4,000 years follows them. A hundred-year age is the “youth” for these trees, contemporaries of the Bronze Age. Just imagine: the tree, under which people were saving from bad weather far before the flush of the Incan empire, when primitive tribes inhabited Europe, still alive!

Gigantic eucalyptuses, growing in the above mentioned Australia, live 8,000 - 10,000 years. These giants reach 150 meters in height and 30 meters in girth. In America, American taxodig competes with them; according to scientists’ estimates, it’s life expectancy is 4,000-6,000 years.

Yews with 3,000 years of life, cypresses (1,000), cades (2,000) and cedars (1,300) are among the earth’s long-living trees and plants.

What about animal’s kingdom? Cold-blooded animals live more than others. The age of sea turtles and crocodiles can reach 200-300 years. They have a big advantage: when external conditions become unfavorable, they den up and all vital processes in their organism drastically are suspended.

Fish lives long. Sheat-fish, carps and sharks live 100 years, pikes - even more than that. In 1797, during clearing the Tsarinsyn ponds in the Moscow district, an over 2-meter pike was caught. The fish was ringed, and there was an inscription on the ring: “Ringed by Tsar Boris Fyodorovich”. This pike had lived about 200 years. In 1497, a pike with a inscription on the ring, dated 1230, was caught in Germany. Some birds also live long. Even in captivity, hawks and golden eagles live up to 80 years, condors - up to 70, parrots - about century and a half. There are some exemptions among birds. A swan killed in Derbisire (England) had a ring on the leg, date 1717; this swan had lived almost 170 years. An eagle brought down in France in 1845, wore on its neck a necklace with Latin inscription that acknowledged that this eagle was used for hunting in Caucasus in 1750. That means that this eagle died at 95^th year of its life.

However, not all animals live long. Small rodents live short: mice live 1.5-2 years, rabbits - 8 years, squirrels - 8-9 years, otters - 6-11 years, badgers, sobols and martens - 10-12 years, wolves - 15 years (in one zoo, a wolf managed to live over 20 years).

Natural life expectancy of domestic animals varies. Scientists present examples, when horses lived even up to 50 years, cows - 30-36 years, sheep - up to 20 years.

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