Oldest living representative of the species.

P

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I'm always interested to have details about the oldest individual of a species still living in captivity anywhere. This is animals CURRENTLY living in Uk zoos, rathger than longevity records for the species.
Here's a few to start with, though some are guesses;

Orangutan(bornean) f. Bulu at Paignton born 1961 at ZSL.
Gorilla- male- either Twycross 'Joe' or Longleat 'Nico'
female. Howletts' 'Mouila' or Baby Doll.
Rhino- Black- female 'Rukwa(or is it Naivasha) at Port Lympne.
Rhino Indian- female Roopa at Whipsnade. born 1971, so she's 36 years old.
Rhino -White- offers?
Hippo- Ben at Whipsnade. Age?
Zebra- there is a solitary Chapman's Stallion at Whipsnade which is now about 36 years old too...
Giraffe- probably one of the older females at ZSL?
Elephant- Chester's Sheba? Her age?
Bear- probably Polar(Mercedes) at Edinburgh. Or Dudley Asiatic?
Chimpanzee-Chester or Twycross? Individual?
Lots of others e.g. Lion. Tiger. Hippo. Tapir. Birds.... Perhaps other people have some accurate details for these and other 'high profile' species, or for any of the above ones too?
 
Martha the Bornean Orang utan at Chester is very old. I think she's 45.

The verminculated fishing owl that used to live at Chester was at least 39 years old. I'm posting this, as she has only recently died and her age was quite extrodianary. She was supposed to die about 25 years ago,, as she was already fully grown.

Sheba is 51.

Chester's oldest Chimp is Boris I think. Meg was very old. She died a few years back now.

I'll post others when I think of them.
 
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The bears at Dartmoor are about 30 years old.

The Bobby Roberts circus elephant Anne is at least 52.
 
our female asian at dubbo is about 53, and we have another in perth who was 50 this year.

we just lost judy the orang at 49 i beleive, and not sure what else is aging around here, we have old giraffes- about 30, and she is in herd with her great grand-children i beleive
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Martha the Bornean Orang utan at Chester is very old. I think she's 45.

Sheba is 51.

Chester's oldest Chimp is Boris I think. Meg was very old. She died a few years back now.
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1. I'm pretty sure Martha is the 2nd oldest Orangutan in UK after Bulu(Paignton) (The oldest Sumatran must be Jersey Zoo's 'Gina' but she's a bit younger than these two)

2. I'm only presuming that Sheba is the oldest UK elephant nowadays...

3.Meg was almost a record breaker. I think the current oldest UK chimp is probably one of the Twycross ones.

4. There must be some other very long lived birds around- especially Parrots, but its harder to get details as many are privately owned with no records.

Are Hornbills long lived? (I suspect they are). Some geese and Swans are too.
 
Zoo_Boy said:
we have another in perth who was 50 this year.

we just lost judy the orang at 49 i beleive
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I didn't realise one of the Perth elephants was an 'old- timer' When I went there I noticed one was bigger than the others but not that she was a lot older.

'Judy' would have been the oldest Orangutan in your region. THe current title holder must now be Perth's Sumatran female 'Puan'.
 
Chester's adult Buceros hornbills are all relatvly old. The oldest I think is one of the great indian females. She's 37/38.

Alfred the Tarictic hornbill is also supposed to be quite old.

The Blue eyed cockatoo is probably quite old.

One of Chester's White naped cranes was 61 when he died in 2005.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Chester's adult Buceros hornbills are all relatvly old. The oldest I think is one of the great indian females. She's 37/38.

One of Chester's White naped cranes was 61 when he died in 2005.
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That's the sort of information I find really interesting...... Do you know if the White-naped Crane's advanced age made any sort of record?
 
taun said:
One of the female Okapi in Marwell is i believe 35
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Marwell had the previous oldest Okapi(anywhere worldwide)too- male Kibali born at Rotterdam Zoo. He was about 33 when he died a few years ago. Seems they are beating this record themselves now with another animal (Dibaya?)
 
grantsmb said:
I didn't realise one of the Perth elephants was an 'old- timer' When I went there I noticed one was bigger than the others but not that she was a lot older.
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actually there are quite a few asian elephants in australia in their early 50's.
i' very keen to see how old they make it (and wish them teh best of luck) in sri lanka i have seen elephants in their 60's and i think the oldest on record made it to about 80!!!
 
patrick said:
actually there are quite a few asian elephants in australia in their early 50's.
i' very keen to see how old they make it (and wish them teh best of luck) in sri lanka i have seen elephants in their 60's and i think the oldest on record made it to about 80!!!
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I met a riding elephant in Kaziranga sanctuary (used for taking tourists to the rhinos..) who is mentioned, with photos in E.P Gee's wonderful book 'Wildlife of India' She was called 'Parboti' and was born in Feb.1950. Her mother was a forestry elephant which went 'awol' in the jungle in 1945. Four years later she was recaptured, pregnant by a wild bull. I saw 'Parboti' when she was about 48 but she's probably still alive today, if so she'd be 57 now...
 
i know he's not alive but twycross's kloss's gibbon "bilou" set a world record for this species at around 39 years old. He arrived from basel with a female aged around 10years in 1979
 
wellington zoo has (or until recently had) a male mueller's gibbon that is incredibly old. i can't remember how old as such but it was much older than 40 - i think they may consider him the oldest gibbon on record. tarongas female mueller's gibbon is also a very old girl.
 
skoop102 said:
In 2002 Howletts had a Brazilian Tapir that was still alive aged 35!
(source: http://www.zoonews.ws/IZN/316/IZN-316.htm).
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Did it look old? Some animals really show their age, while others don't.

There is a solitary Chapman's Zebra stallion at Whipsnade Zoo- I have seen him on a number of visits, always alone. A keeper told me he's at least 36 years old- yet you'd never know it- very fit and alert, not a blemish on him. I guess in nature its not good news to show your age... They should really fix him up with a couple of females though.
 
Oldest chimpanzee from Auckland fyi

1 Do you still have the last remaining Tea
Party chimp ? How old is she ?

Yes we do. Her name is Janie and she's 53, 3rd
oldest in the region.



Courtesy of Abi ( Auckland Zoo )
 
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