23 Animals You Didn’t Know Had Very Long Lifespans

The oldest bat ever recorded was a Brandt's bat which was discovered in a cave in Siberia that had been banded in 1964, making the bat at least 41 years old.

One of the world’s oldest animal (excluding primitive metazoans) was “Ming” the clam at 507 years old. Unfortunately, Ming died when the scientists opened it up to count the growth rings.

The oldest bear on record was a European brown bear named Andreas living in the Arcturos Bear Sanctuary in northern Greece. He was at least 50 years old at the time of his death.

An Asian elephant named Lin Wang was the oldest elephant in the Taipei Zoo. He was born on January 18, 1917, and died on February 26, 2003, at 86 years, surpassing the previous record of 84. Normally, elephants live up to 50 years, while their maximum lifespan is generally estimated at 70.

The oldest living horse on record was named Old Billy. Bill was allegedly born in the year 1760 in London, England. Bill died in 1822 at the age of 62 years.

A wild-born black rhino named Elly was the oldest in North America at an estimated 45 years of age and resided in California's San Francisco Zoo from April 1974 until passing in May 2017.

Jonathan the tortoise is 187 years of age is the oldest known living terrestrial animal in the world. Jonathan resides on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. He is now blind from cataracts, has lost his sense of smell, but has retained excellent hearing. When he was born George Washington had only been dead 33 years and Abraham Lincoln was 22 years old.

Adwaita, the turtle, was born before Mozart, before the French Revolution, and his death was announced by CNN. His estimated age was just over 250 years. He died in 2006.

Greater, who lived to be at least 83, was the world's oldest greater flamingo. In 2008, the almost blind bird was attacked and beaten by four teenagers. It was euthanized six years later because of arthritis.

A radiated tortoise named Tu'i Malila died at an age of 188 years in May 1965, at the time the oldest verified vertebrate. This tortoise was born in 1777.