nature

How long does a turtle actually live?

How long does a turtle actually live?
How long does a turtle actually live?

Video: How Do Turtles Live So Long? 2024, June

Video: How Do Turtles Live So Long? 2024, June
Anonim

How long does the turtle live? It depends on what kind of species it belongs to. For example, a giant tortoise lives longer than any vertebrate - more than a century. And small, like the European marsh - from 20 to 25 years. Moreover, the conditions practically do not affect their life expectancy. The turtles are very slow

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metabolism, in this regard, they can not eat or drink for a long time. In addition, due to the effective functioning of the immune system, these animals are very resistant to infections of various origins, quickly recover from injuries and are extremely hardy. They can completely stop their heartbeat, and then resume it. All turtles have one, and the land ancestor is a cotylosaurus. But in the course of evolution, many of his descendants were able to adapt to life in water, both salty and fresh.

In general, the answer to the question of how long the tortoise lives is rather lengthy, since some facts contradict all the others. For example, on the island of Galapagos, there is still a living turtle, which was noticed by the discoverers of this land more than 300 years ago. But perhaps it’s a bike, because scientists believe that

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giant turtles (namely the notorious long-liver) refers to this species can survive up to a maximum of 180 years. In any case, how much the tortoise lives in our time largely depends on the person, because he destroys the familiar habitat of parareptiles with his vital activity. Attempts to relocate turtles during the development of their ancestral lands were unsuccessful. Also, man destroys these animals in large quantities for the sake of the skin, shell and meat. To a greater extent, this affected the tortoise soup.

Today, about 290 species of these animals are known, 7 of them live on the territory of Russia. They inhabit land and water in temperate zones and in the tropics. According to the mode of existence, turtles are divided into land and sea. The first, in turn, - on freshwater and land. The sizes of turtles are various. Sea - the largest of all others. For example, leathery ones have a shell length of up to 2 meters, and weigh more than half a ton. How many aquatic turtles live also depends on the species, habitat, and many other factors.

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Medium-sized individuals are captured in large quantities for captivity. They have no chance to give offspring or return to their natural habitat. In total, about 1 million turtles are caught per year for sale. It is believed that under adequate conditions of detention they can live in captivity longer than in nature. But this is not so. If we talk about how many domestic turtles live, it is difficult to give a definite answer. Of course, a lot depends on the conditions of detention, but it is always only a very approximate semblance of natural circumstances, and therefore animals die before their due date. Mostly from melancholy, stress and physical inactivity.

So how long does a turtle live? First of all, her life span depends on the comfort of existence, a good diet, environmental compliance with the necessary standards, and most importantly - a full-fledged life.