David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

Nile crocodiles, although physically and morally capable of killing humans, are tender guardians of their own babies. Newborn crocodiles average 28 cm (11 inches) in length and weigh 100 grams (3½ ounces) — tempting prey for a wide range of predators. To protect them when they emerge from their shells, a mother crocodile delicately picks up the hatchlings with her deadly jaws and slips them into a pouch inside her mouth. Then she carries the chirping babies to the water where they are greeted by a roaring chorus from the adult males.

The female gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus), which flourished in Queensland, Australia, until its recent extinction, swallowed her fertilised eggs, transformed her stomach into a uterus, carried the developing tadpoles in her stomach, and then gave birth to fully formed young through her mouth.

Aphids produce a sugary excrement, which has come to be known as honeydew, by licking the leaves and stems on which it has fallen. But some ant species have learned to gather the aphids into their nests, feed them, and then when the ants are hungry, to stroke the aphids with their feelers so that they produce the honeydew, which the ants then drink fresh.

The female mite known as Histiostoma murchiei creates her own husband from scratch. She lays eggs that turn into adults without needing to be fertilised. The mother then copulates with her sons within three of four days of laying the eggs, after which the sons die rather quickly.

Female cuckoos deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds, who then incubate the eggs and raise the offspring until they are able to fly away on their own. Curiously, each individual cuckoo mother chooses the same species to adopt all of her children and is able to lay eggs that resemble the eggs of the foster family.

As soon as they mature sexually, male angler fish begin a desperate search to find a mate in the dark water 6,000 feet below the surface. As soon as they locate likely prospects, certain species of angler fish attach themselves to the females — literally. The male latches on to the much larger female and never lets go for the rest of his life. In fact, their vascular systems become united and the male becomes entirely dependent on the female’s blood for nutrition. In exchange, the male provides the female with sperm.

Several species of tree ants in Southeast Asia have evolved a bizarre method for building their nests. While one brigade of ants holds together two leaves, another brigade grabs hold of ant larvae and squeezes out of their young bodies a sticky thread that is used to hold together the edges of the leaves.

Ichneumon wasps are the sort of beings that inspire horror films. At the worst, an ichneumon mother picks a victim, usually a caterpillar, and injects her eggs into the host’s body. Often she also injects a poison that paralyses the victim without killing it. When the eggs hatch, the wasp larvae begin eating the caterpillar. Because a dead caterpillar would be useless to developing wasps, they contrive to keep the unfortunate victim alive as long as possible by eating its fatty deposits and digestive organs first and saving the heart and central nervous system for last.

1. Tortoise 188 years

2. Lake Sturgeon 152 years

3. Human 122 years, 5 months

4. Fin Whale 116 years

5. Blue Whale 110 years

6. Humpback Whale 95 years

7. Elephant (African) 80 years

8. Turtle (eastern box) 75 years

9. Parrot (African grey) 73 years

10. Alligator 66 years

11. Horse 62 years

12. Chimpanzee 59 years, 5 months

13. Orangutan 59 years

14. Eagle (eastern imperial) 56 years

15. Seal (Baikal) 56 years

16. Hippopotamus 54 years, 4 months

17. Gorilla 54 years

18. Camel 50 years

19. Grizzly Bear 50 years

20. Rhinoceros (Indian) 49 years

21. Brown Bear 47 years

22. Condor (California) 45 years

23. Goldfish 43 years

24. Hyena (spotted) 41 years, 1 month

25. Boa constrictor 40 years, 3 months

26. Vulture 39 years

27. Polar Bear 38 years, 2 months

28. Giraffe 36 years, 4 months

29. Dolphin 35 years

30. Rhinoceros (Sumatran) 35 years

31. Cat 34 years

32. Ant (queen) 30 years

33. Kangaroo (red) 30 years

34. Panda (giant) 30 years

35. Dog 29 years, 6 months

36. Lion 29 years

37. Porcupine (Old World) 27 years, 4 months

38. Tiger 26 years, 4 months

39. Wombat 26 years, 1 month

40. Aardvark 24 years

41. Sheep 24 years

42. Jaguar 22 years

43. Raccoon 20 years, 7 months

44. Frog 20 years

45. Koala 20 years

46. Porcupine (normal) 20 years

47. Vampire Bat 19 years, 6 months

48. Pigeon 18 years, 6 months

49. Rabbit 18 years

50. Duck-billed Platypus 17 years

51. Guinea Pig 14 years, 10 months

52. Hedgehog 14 years

53. Shrew (non-human) 12 years

54. Hamster 10 years

55. Gopher (eastern pocket) 7 years, 2 months

56. Anchovy 7 years

57. Partridge 6 years, 3 months 58. Mole 5 years

Primary Source: Max Planck Institute web site http://www.demogr.mpg.de/; also Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish , by James R. Carey and Debra S. Judge

This ocean-wandering bird nested exclusively on the islets of Bermuda. Also known as the Bermuda petrel, the last of the cahows was believed to have been killed during the famine of 1615, when British colonists built cook-fires into which the unwary cahows flew by the thousand. On January 8, 1951, the cahow was rediscovered by Bermuda’s conservation officer, David Wingate. Under his protection, the existing 18 birds were encouraged to breed, and now number more than 150.

A marsupial mouse, the dibbler was listed as extinct in 1884. In 1967 an Australian naturalist hoping to trap live honey possums, caught instead a pair of dibblers. The female of the captured pair soon produced a litter of eight, and they were then bred in captivity.

The last known dwarf lemur was reported in 1875, and was regarded as extinct. Then in 1966 the small tree-dwelling marsupial was once again seen, near the city of Mananara, Madagascar.

This small marsupial was considered to have been extinct for 20,000 years until Dr Kenneth Shortman caught one in the kitchen of his skiing lodge, Mount Hothan, in southeast Australia in 1966. Three more of the tiny possums were discovered in 1970.

A primeval forest horse of central Asia and long extinct, the tarpan was recreated by brothers Lutz and Heinz Heck, curators of the Berlin and Munich zoos, respectively. By selective crossbreeding of Polish primitive horses with Swedish Gotlands, Icelandic ponies and Polish Konik mares, they created a strain of wild horse identical in appearance to what we know of the mouse-gray tarpan. The first colt was born on May 22, 1933. By this same method, the aurochs, a European wild ox which died out in Poland in 1627, have also been duplicated.

A flower-eating South American bird, the guan was thought extinct for a century until sighted in September of 1977. An American ornithologist and his Peruvian associate located four of the pheasant-sised birds in remote northwestern Peru.