#animal longevity

Oldest Known Black Swift Found in Colorado

This story from the field comes from Bird Conservancy of the Rockies biologists Rob Sparks and Colin Woolley: “On August 1st 2023, we were excited to recapture a female Black Swift at a nesting site in Colorado, where it was first banded as an adult (after-hatch-year) bird in 2005! That makes this swift at least 19 years old, breaking the longevity record set in 2022… by this very same swift! That’s right, this swift has been returning to nest at the same site since at least 2005, and has been recaptured 14 times over the years. Research like this highlights the importance of long-term monitoring projects and what they can reveal about a species’ site fidelity and lifespan. Right now, this swift is likely in Brazilian airspace, soaring over the Amazon Basin, where it will remain aloft for the entire overwintering period. Here’s to hoping this bird returns to nest in Colorado in 2024!” All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s BBL.

WORLD’S MOST PRODUCTIVE LOON BREEDS AGAIN

Damon McCormick Common Coast Research & Conservation

Fe, the oldest documented Common Loon, hatched two chicks last week with her unbanded I Pool mate; the young were, at minimum, Fe’s 41st and 42nd offspring, extending her record for the species. Most of her prior chicks were begot with her long-term consort, ABJ, during their quarter-century partnership, but since their split in spring 2022, Fe has produced young in two of three breeding seasons. Prior to first coupling with ABJ in 1997, she hatched at least seven chicks with a color-marked male known as Dewlap. The qualifiers attending Fe’s age and lifetime productivity are necessitated by her initial banding in 1990 as a successful mother, when she was at least four years old, the threshold for Common Loon reproduction. As her earlier life history in the 1980s is a mystery, Fe could well be older than 38, and with more than 42 progeny to her credit. One of Fe’s 2024 young perished, from an unknown cause, within days of hatching. Although Refuge loon chicks collectively fare far better in terms of survivorship than their cygnet, gosling and duckling counterparts, of the roughly one in five who do not live to fledge from Seney in the fall, most disappear early, when as downy buoyant corks they are most vulnerable to predators and other antagonists. While not quite the endlessly doting parent that ABJ was, across 35 years of monitoring Fe has – assuming her second chick makes it to autumn – fledged 86% of her offspring. ABJ’s parenting is referenced in the past tense owing to a lack of reproduction since 2020. After a failed nesting attempt on E West last summer with a female two decades his junior, ABJ was evicted from that territory this spring, and again found himself on H Pool, which has served as his bachelor pad of sorts in both recent and distant years. Although this season he did attract a female known as Aye-Aye, there was no evidence of nest initiation by the pair. Historically H Pool has provided poor habitat for Common Loons, with only four fledged chicks since 1987, and if ABJ is to successfully breed again at Seney, it is likely that he will do so on a different Refuge territory. Thanks to Dani Fegan, Teresa McGill and Jen Wycoff for their ongoing observations of the Seney loon population. Picture courtesy of Dani Fegan.

The World’s Oldest Wild Platypus Shocks Scientists at 24 Years of Age

The animal was tagged in 2000, when it was estimated to be about one year old, and re-discovered alive in the wild last year.

When Geoff Williams found and tagged a one-year-old male platypus as part of a survey in November 2000, he probably didn’t anticipate ever seeing the animal again. But more than two decades later, in the same creek system in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, scientists found the platypus once again. When Williams then studied the creature, it was an unlikely reunion—and one with historic significance: At about 24 years old, the platypus is the oldest ever to be documented in the wild...

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-oldest-wild-platypus-shocks-scientists-at-24-years-of-age-180983805

Jonathan is a Seychelles Giant Tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa) hatched out sometime in 1832.

Animals that produce many offspring tend to have short lives, while less prolific species tend to live longer. Cockroaches lay hundreds of eggs while living less than a year. Mice have dozens of babies during their year or two of life. Humpback whales produce only one calf every two or three years and live for decades. The rule of thumb seems to reflect evolutionary strategies that channel nutritional resources either into reproducing quickly or into growing more robust for a long-term advantage.

Deep-sea rockfish that live to be 200 hint at genes for longevity

Longevity research often focuses on short-lived lab animals like mice – but a study of long-lived rockfish might offer new genetic clues for extending lifespans

Rockfish are among the longest-living animals known to exist, and by studying the natural variation in their lifespans, researchers have discovered key insights into the genetic basis of longevity.

Studies into ageing have traditionally focused on laboratory mice because they are easy to work with. However, Peter Sudmant at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues adopted a different approach, studying longevity in creatures with longer lifespans.

The researchers performed a genomic analysis of 88 species of Pacific Ocean rockfish (genus Sebastes) – deep-sea creatures that live between 11 and 200 years – to map out the genetic underpinnings of their lifespans. They accounted for factors such as body size and their environment, which are variables that are known to affect ageing in many organisms...