How Long Do Elephants Live? Elephant Lifespan in the Wild

How long do elephants live in the wild?

Under good conditions, elephants reach old age slowly. They mature in their teens, females give birth every four or five years, and adults can keep breeding into their 50s. The maximum lifespan of the African bush elephant is about 70–75 years, and the Asian elephant and African forest elephant have similar natural lifespans of about 60–70 years.

Average lifespan is much lower than the maximum because deaths early in life pull the average down. Calves under two years old are the most vulnerable: they can die in droughts, fall prey to lions or hyenas in Africa or tigers in Asia, or be orphaned if their mother is killed. Once an elephant reaches adulthood, its chances of living for decades are good.

Ages of wild elephants are often estimates. The best data come from long-term studies, such as the research project in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, which has followed individual elephants and their families since 1972.

Why do elephants’ teeth limit their lifespan?

An elephant’s chewing teeth work like a conveyor belt. Instead of growing all at once, six molars form one after another in each half of each jaw. Each new tooth moves forward from the back of the jaw and pushes out the worn one in front of it.

The first molars fall out at around two to three years, and the replacements arrive in the following decades. The sixth and final set comes into use when an elephant is in its 40s. When that last set wears down, usually in the 60s, the elephant can no longer grind enough tough grass and bark. Very old elephants often stay near swamps and rivers, where the vegetation is softer, but they eventually starve. This is the main natural cause of death for elephants that escape other dangers.

What are the main causes of death for elephants?

Natural causes include old age, drought, disease and accidents. Prolonged droughts kill many calves and old animals, and diseases such as anthrax cause outbreaks in some parks. Adult elephants have no regular predators, but calves are sometimes killed by large carnivores.

Today, people cause a large share of elephant deaths. Poaching for ivory targets the oldest bulls with the biggest tusks, and conflict over crops leads to retaliatory killings, especially in India, Sri Lanka and parts of Africa. Elephants also die after collisions with trains, from electrocution on illegal fences and from poisoning. The loss of older animals is especially harmful because matriarchs and old bulls carry knowledge that helps the herd survive. See Are elephants endangered? for more on these threats.

How long do elephants live in captivity?

Elephants in zoos have generally not lived as long as wild elephants in protected areas. A widely cited 2008 study in the journal Science compared thousands of records and found that the median lifespan of elephants in European zoos was under 20 years. By contrast, African elephants in Amboseli National Park and Asian elephants working in Myanmar’s timber camps had median lifespans several decades longer.

Researchers linked poor zoo survival to factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, stress, transfers between zoos and separation from the mother at a young age. Many zoos have since changed how they keep elephants, with larger enclosures and family groups, and later studies suggest survival has improved. It still varies greatly between facilities.

What is the oldest elephant ever recorded?

The oldest reliably documented elephant was Lin Wang, an Asian elephant bull. He served with Chinese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War, later lived at Taipei Zoo in Taiwan, and died in 2003 at an age of about 86 years. Claims of elephants older than this exist, but their ages were not documented well enough to confirm.

In the wild, no elephant is known to have reached such an age. A few females in long-term studies have been followed into their 60s, still leading their families as matriarchs. Such old females are valuable to their herds: studies in Amboseli found that families led by older matriarchs respond more appropriately to threats such as the roars of male lions.

Do elephants live longer than other animals?

Elephants live longer than almost any other land mammal apart from humans, but many animals outlive them. Some tortoises live well over 100 years, and bowhead whales may live for two centuries. Our list of the longest-living animals compares these record holders.