Python Longevity

[Charlie]

I just went on a site that stated Coastal Carpets could live well in exess of a hundred years. Is that a total load of BS or is it true?

 

[PeeJay]

HA! imagine that. prob BS!

 

[Tatelina]

hahahahaha I think only some sorts of turtles can.... And hermit crabs. I doubt standard bred carpets can..especially with the average amount that they are fed in captivity...

But maybe logically if you only fed them every few months for their whole lives.. *shrugs* I don't know. *waits for someone else with a better idea to post*

 

[Charlie]

Well it did say 100yrs in the wild , and 50yrs in captivity

 

[codeth]

i got told before i got into herps that they could out live a human in the wild

 

[PeeJay]

where did you read it?

 

[Charlie]

/www.rhianna.id.au just googled Carpet Pythons and this came up

 

[mitchyj]

BS

 

[Earthling]

Untill an experimant is done to find out its realistically not totally answerable.
As you can see some people will say its possible and others will say bull ****.
Looooooooooooooong experiment.

 

[PythonMick]

so how long do thay live in captivity ???

 

[PilbaraPythons]

Since many reptiles keepers have kept and bred many of or native species over many years, I would suggest that they would indeed have a good idea on the longevity of those species. One of the biggest clues is when they suddenly stop breeding because they are simply too old. Secondly some people have indeed had their dead pythons that they had suspected to have succumbed to old age, autopsied and sure enough, arthritis type conditions and other evidence of old age.
My conclusion, 100 years for any Australian python is absolute BS.

 

[PythonMick]

mad

 

[DanN]

Captive bred snakes have a much greater longevity than wild specimens due to predation, parasites etc. The greatest recorded age for an Australian python is a little over 20 years by a captive Green python.
A wild snake may live longer than this however it would be very rare and my guess is it wouldn't live for too much longer.

Cheers,

 

[caustichumor]

Snakes don't stop growing for their entire lifetime, There would have to be some huge carpets cruising around out there. The biggest wild carpet I have seen was around 11 feet long, I don't believe that they can live that long. 20 years sounds like an old carpet to me!

 

[Charlie]

Thanks everyone, my initial thought was that it was untrue, if they did live that long i imagine they would get to be a very large size,it would be quite cool!