Other Turtle Discussion :: turtle years

[Jayqualin]

1 human year equals to how many turtle years? Anyone know??

[kaimarion]

I think its like 1.5 or 2 turtle years.

Hope that helps.

[steve]

um... 1 human year = 1 turtle year?

[jenaero]

That's what I was thinking too..lol

[DavidY]

Yea, but a turtle reaches sexual maturity in less than 2 years and full grown adult size in what, maybe 5 years? So it's hard to correlate the age/growth between humans and turtles linearly.

[steve]

Why would animal maturity need to correlate to human maturity? I don't see how useful it could be and in any case, all species have different rates of growth at different times. Sexual maturity in turtles also ties into the size and diet, so there are other factors to weigh. Besides, a "year" is just a unit of time.

[adam85491]

Wouldn't you just take the average life (in years) of a human and divide it but the average life (in years) of a turtle to figure this out? Ex: 70/20=3.5/1

[Safdar]

How do you find out how old your turtle is
Tito's 1 1/2

[SpotsMama]

I think it's just about impossible to correlate the two because, while a person has a normal life span, I think a turtle doesn't. There are many different ways to look at it. Some people think a turtle just lives until something like an accident or disease kills him - he doesn't wear out and get old like a person does. On the other hand, I've read that a RES in the wild can live about 20 years and a captive RES can live about 40 years. Another site said a RES can live about 60 years. And we just had a person on here with an aquatic turtle (granted, not a RES, but similar) that's around 90 years old! That's a pretty wide range, a whole lot wider than a human's.

So what are you going to use as the "normal" life span of a turtle to compare to a person's? Take your pick!

[adam85491]

I was under the impression 25 years was about average but then again-how do they come up with dog years?

[xsavingsaturdayx]

25 years isnt the average. Some herpetologists say 40 years is the average.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

How do you find out how old your turtle is
Tito's 1 1/2

Unless you know the date of when it hatched. Then it is impossible know.

[SpotsMama]

Dogs and cats are more like people - they have an average life span. I think an average dog should live 10 to 12 years (some breeds can expect more or less). Cats live to around 15 I think. That's nothing like the range for a RES - where some say 20 and some say 60 and some say..... forever!

[steve]

Wasn't there one expert who only said RES lived up to 7 or 8 years? With good care, I think 20-40 years is reasonable.

[SpotsMama]

How many experts are there? There's probably the same number of "average" ages!

Spot's going for 90!