Age - a question for my all-knowing friends-list

[andrewducker]

Ed was asking on Facebook what it would be like if we didn't age visibly so much - after all, other animals don't tend to.

Is this actually true?  Thinking about it, most other animals don't seem to get wrinkled in the same way, nor does their fur turn completely white or all fall out.  But is this just some animals?  Do other animals age visibly the same way we do?  Or is there something odd about people?

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Others have probably said this, but I believe we age because we don't die at relatively young ages. I can't remember the precise ages, but the average lifespan used to be somewhere in the 40s - although that included high infant mortality, too.

Other animals I think do age (think of elderly cats and dogs - which would probably have died long before had they not been in relationships with humans); and they don't live long past their reproductive lifespan.

[andrewducker]

In which case we'll have examples in zoos of older ones...

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Except that we don't, necessarily. We don't give animals the same care that we give ourselves. Elephants are put down if they have severe arthritis (I got that factlet from the recent animal autopsies on C4!), for example, but we'd replace joints in humans. Even animals in houses aren't super long lived - how often do you hear of a 30 year old cat (and that is perfectly possible - the WR is 36 years, and my mum knew a cat who was about 35 when he died [after a life of steak and salmon, apparently!])? Not often! Despite it being possible to extend animals' lives as we do our own, we don't tend to do it. We not only have better end-of-life care, we have better life-care throughout our entire lives, which means we're better prepared to live for longer.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

And I would say we do - aged bears, lions, elephants: a whole menagerie!

[andrewducker]

Do aged bears change colour and lose large patches of hair? Or do something equally visible?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I can't help with this one...

I am aware of aged animals with arthritis and other joint problems.