What is the life expectancy of a Russian Tortoise?

Answer 1

100 years.Giant tortoises are characteristic reptiles of certain tropical islands. They live, or lived until recently (some species are now extinct), in such places as Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Réunion, the Galápagos Islands, Sulawesi, Timor, Flores and Java, often reaching enormous size-they can weigh as much as 300 kg (660 lbs) and can grow to be 1.3 m (4 ft) long. However, giant tortoises also once lived on the mainland of Asia and Australia, as follows from fossil finds in the Shivalik Hills in India. Today, the world's largest population inhabits Aldabra Atoll in Seychelles, where there are approximately 150,000 individuals.

These animals belong to the most ancient group of reptiles, appearing about 250 million years ago. In the Upper Cretaceous, 70 or 80 million years ago some already became gigantic and about 1 million years ago these reptiles reached the Galápagos Islands. Until 100,000 years ago most of the gigantic species began to disappear for unknown causes and only 250 years ago there were at least 20 species and subspecies in islands of the Indian ocean and 14 or 15 species in the Galapagos Islands. From those, only one of the species of the Indian Ocean survives in the wild, the Aldabra Giant Tortoise (two more are claimed to exist in captive or re-released populations, but some genetic studies have cast doubt on the validity of these as separate species) and 11 in Galápagos.

They are one of the world's longest-living animals, with an average lifespan of 100 years or more. The Madagascar radiated tortoise Tu'i Malila was 188 at death in Tonga in 1965. Harriet (initially thought to be one of the three Galápagos tortoises brought back to England from Charles Darwin'sBeagle voyage but later shown to be from an island not even visited by Darwin) was reported by the Australia Zoo to be 176 years old when she died in 2006. Also, on 23 March 2006, an Aldabra Giant Tortoise named Adwaita died at Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata. He was brought to the zoo in the 1870s from the estate of Lord Robert Clive and is thought to have been around 255 years old when he died. Around the time of its discovery, they were caught and killed for food in such large quantities that they became virtually extinct by 1900. The giant tortoise is now under strict conservation laws and is categorised as an endangered species.

Although the first giant tortoise was discovered in 1535, the species was not scientifically catalogued until the early 19th century; no one actually managed to bring even a sample of the tortoise back to England because they found it so delicious.[1] Most early accounts describe only the taste of the tortoises.[2]

Answer 2

20 to 50 years

Answer 3

120 years or more