Breeding

[GarterGuy]

I really wonder if the longevity records of "old" really apply anymore. I mean when you consider how far keeping reptiles has come in just the last 10yrs, it wouldn't surprise me that we'd see snakes living LOTS longer than what was previously thought of as a "record" likespan.

[Thamnophis]

I have had gartersnakes (sirtalis parietalis and radix) that went over ten years of age without problems.

I am sure that a healthy, in captivity living gartersnake that hibernates every year for a month of three can get 15 to 20 years.

In our reptilezoo we keep a number of animals that are there since we opened in 1982. And at that time they already were adult.

Some examples...

Several Python regius that are at least 29 years old.
Epicrates striatus at least 28 years old.
Gekko gecko (Tokeh) that is around 30 years old.
Some Iguana iguana live for about 18 - 20 years in our zoo.

All these animals are healthy and do well.

This does not happen that much by persons at home.

[Cazador]

The problem with statements like, "No studies of the longevity of giant garter snakes have been conducted" is that even if the researcher conducted exhaustive research into ALL the literature, the statement can become outdated in a single day... as new studies get published. The study to which you're referring (link below) appears to have an "information cut-off date" for its publications of 1999, which was actually the draft recovery plan for T. gigas. The rest of the references range from 1952 to 1997 with a mode somewhere in the mid-to-late 80s. Thus, the information in this report is rather outdated, considering the fact that T. gigas has been on both the California and Federal "threatened" species list since 1993. Listing a species on the threatened species list mandates that life history research be conducted. It's amazing that estimates for their true lifespan seem to be so elusive. Finally, the point of my original post was that longevity and fecundity vary from species to species. This point is incontrovertible .

http://www.cocohcp.org/hcp_nccp_cont...ke_1-18-05.pdf

[Thamnophis]

Thanks for hat PDF, Rick.

longevity and fecundity vary from species to species

I agree on this statement.