(Q)uahog Clam

I turned 40 yesterday, which pretty much puts me smack dab in the middle of life, given an average life expectancy of 77.3 years (for a white female born in 1975).

I don't think I'm ready to be halfway done with my life already.

But I'm in good company: Priscilla and Patches, our male and female (yes, respectively) Desert Tortoises at the Oregon Zoo, have a similar life expectancy. These two are program animals, which means they are docile enough to be used in educational experiences at the zoo and in our outreach programs.

Desert Tortoise
Courtesy of Oregon Zoo

I volunteer with the ZooSnooze program, one of the opportunities volunteers have to be hands-on with animals. It's pretty great to be able to show off an animal like the Desert Tortoise and share interesting talking points with small groups. Such as why Priscilla is a boy and is named Priscilla: because it takes over a decade for their boy parts to become noticeable, and when we first acquired him we thought he was a she. (And because, paperwork. It would be too much of a hassle to change his name at this point. Zoo bureaucracy and all.) But I don't usually talk about boy parts with kids. Yikes. I'm not a parent for many good reasons; not having to explain the birds and the bees is one of them. I refer, instead, to the gular horn, an extension of their lower shell which males use in fighting with other males.

It's about as riveting as you'd expect. Be sure to hang in there until the bitter end!

But I digress. And my attempt to console myself with animal life expectancies doesn't really work, because I start lamenting about people taking on exotic animals as pets - pets which will outlive them or whose humans will grow tired of them long before the pets can even attempt to outlive them ...

Okay, that really doesn't make me feel better.

I don't feel better, until I think of 40 in comparison to very long-living animals.

Lake Sturgeon, 152 years
Courtesy of Lake Champlain International

Red Sea Urchin, 200 years
Google Image, Unknown Photographer

 And the Quahog Clam, which lives to be an astonishing 400 years old.

Ocean Quahog Clam, 400 years
Courtesy of Paul Kay

Seriously?!? 40 is only one-tenth of 400. I don't need to live another 9 lifetimes. Yay, middle age! I just made myself feel a whole lot better.

Happy birthday, me!


For more information :
http://news.discovery.com/animals/top-10-longest-living-animals.htm