Are there any animals with a long life span?

[Numion]

Terminators have a battery life of 120 years.

 

[diaglo]

mechanically already in the rules. familiars live longer than their normal animal counterparts. iirc they live the same number of years as their masters.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Interesting thread.

Yes, I knew familiars lived longer, I thought as long as the PC.
I was a tad confused about what the actual question here was... I guess it is do animals in fantasy games live as long as their real life counterparts...regular animals, not familiars.

Another interesting question is, it is a proven fact that animals in captivity tend to live longer than animals in the wild (not as much chance of being eaten in the food chain, humans to feed it a balanced meal, give it medical care etc.) So would that be true in a fantasy world as well?

I guess it depends how closely you want to base your game on the real world for non-magical creatures.

There was a thread a week or so ago where a guy wanted to keep some chickens with him to produce eggs to live off of and there was some discussion as to the husbandry of chickens in captivity that seemed based primarily on real world care of livestock.

Ok...this is getting weird...

 

[Limper]

Hyena's can live about 45 or so years.

Elephants about 90.

 

[WayneLigon]

Here's one link, And Another about animal lifespans. The first seems.. a little questionable or perhaps out of date, regarding human averages? I knew they were lower than today but not quite that low. The second is interesting, because it lists captivity ages, ages in the wild, oldest known living, etc.

 

[alsih2o]

oddly enough, bufo fowleri, the common brown toad or wood toad or fowlers toad found throughout north america can live to be 35 in the wild!! a toad!

 

[Kalle Palander]

Yes! a parrot! One could play a pirate/ sea druid!!

 

[Umbran]

Another interesting question is, it is a proven fact that animals in captivity tend to live longer than animals in the wild

It's a fact that some animals do tend to live longer in captivity, and that others don't. Take, for example, your basic iguana. In the wild, they seem to have a life expectancy around 30 years. Bring on into your home, that expectancy drops to about 5 years or less.

It's mostly a matter of knowledge - do you know enough about the animal to give it an environment at least as good as it's natural one. Then it becomes a matter of effort - do you actually give it the best environment that you know how to produce.

I think it's safe to say that the life of an adventurer doesn't give anything like the optimal environment for most animals (including the adventurer himself). So, comparison to modern animal care is probably not particularly useful.

 

[daTim]

If you were a druid and hauled around a Joshua Tree you could expect it to live over 10,000 years. There are a couple that live longer, but that is the only one I remembered.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I think it's safe to say that the life of an adventurer doesn't give anything like the optimal environment for most animals (including the adventurer himself).

Yeah...I think the bottom line on the chicken thread was that the chicken idea was not condusive to traipsing through the wilderness...