Elapid longevity.

[imported_Varanus]

I was visiting a friend's elapid collection yesterday and we got talking about longevity while he showed me his 14 year old mainland tiger snake, which I thought was a reasonable age from what I can gather. He then mentioned that it was an adult of unknown age when he aquired it back in 97'!

They obviously have the potential to live longer in captivity than in the wild state and perhaps the hobby isn't old enough yet to determine elapid lifespans with any great accuracy, but I was wondering what others have recorded over the years?

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Hey IV, Ive always had the theory that the less you feed your snake, the longer it will live.
All we have really is heresay atm though, like a mate of mine who also picked up his tiger snake 20 years ago and its still alive.

 

[Laghairt]

That's very interesting, I would imagine that the cold climate species would live longer than those from warmer climates (provided they are kept under natural conditions of course). I wonder if there is much data to support that?

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

at one time i did alot of research into finding cases of longevity in captive species and found it difficult to find reliable cases,but there is definate examples of Pseudechis living 20, or even more in one particular P. guttatus living more than 22 years.
i have heard the possibility of wild tigersnakes in mark/recapture studies on island populations being possibly much older from the data collected.

 

[imported_Varanus]

OH CRAP! I just spent half an hour typing a well thought out response (for me, anyway) and was told to refresh!!

Anyway, thanks for the replies, some interesting thoughts raised. Can you elaborate on your less feed = greater longevity theory Baz, and the cold climate species idea anouc? Is the wild tigersnake study your referring to the one conducted on the Chappel Island population SP?? I vaguely remember mention of estimations of 50+ years for some of the larger animals, given their slow growth rates! Also, does anyone have any records for tropical species, such as Coastal Tai's and Top End Mulgas??

 

[getarealdog]

A mate has a 26 year old collett male at over 8 foot & a 24 year old blue belly at 7 foot.

 

[snakelady-viper]

Our Tiger just died he is over over 15 years old

 

[eipper]

one Forest Cobra died recently at Melbourne Zoo that was 38 years old

 

[bigguy]

My oldest elapid was a collets. Bred by Neil Charles in 1980 and died last year. Just on 30 years old. He was not fed slowly. Also, I had my dwalf Taipan die last year at 23 years old and my old Redbelly died at 27 years old.