How Long Do Turtles Live? Lifespans From Box Turtles to Giants

Typical turtle lifespans by group

Lifespan varies a lot between species, and most wild turtles die young, as eggs or hatchlings. The figures below are typical lifespans for turtles that survive to adulthood, not for every hatchling.

Lifespans in captivity can be longer or shorter than in the wild. Safe from predators and traffic, a well-kept turtle may outlive its wild relatives, but many captive turtles die young because their needs for heat, light and diet are complex.

Box turtles and pond turtles

The eastern box turtle is a small land turtle of eastern US woodlands, yet it is one of the longest-lived reptiles in North America. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo gives a typical lifespan of 25 to 35 years, and long-term field studies have followed marked wild box turtles for half a century. Ages of over 100 years have been reported, with about 138 years often quoted as a record, but such ages are estimates.

Freshwater turtles can be just as long-lived. Painted turtles, among the most common turtles in North America, have been recorded at more than 55 years in the wild. In a long-running study in Michigan, some Blanding’s turtle females were still laying eggs when they were thought to be over 70 years old, with no clear drop in fertility. Snapping turtles also live for several decades.

Sea turtles

Sea turtles grow slowly in the open ocean. Most species need 20 years or more to reach maturity, and green sea turtles in some populations take 30 years or longer. Scientists estimate that large sea turtles can live 50 to 100 years, but they are so hard to follow at sea that their true maximum lifespan is not known. The page How long do sea turtles live? looks at each species.

Giant tortoises: the record holders

Giant tortoises hold the lifespan records. The Galápagos giant tortoise regularly lives more than 100 years in the wild. Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise kept in Australia, died in 2006 at an estimated age of about 175, although her early history is uncertain.

The oldest known living land animal is Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. He is thought to have hatched around 1832, an estimate based on his size when he arrived on the island in 1882. The story is told in Who is Jonathan the tortoise? Another famous case, Tu’i Malila, a radiated tortoise in Tonga, died in 1965 and was said to be about 188 years old, but that claim rests on a story rather than records.

Why do turtles live so long?

Several features help turtles live long lives:

• A protective shell. Adults of many species have few predators, so they are less likely to be killed than other animals of their size.
• A slow metabolism. As cold-blooded animals, turtles burn energy slowly and can go weeks or months with little food.
• Slow growth and late breeding. Many turtles take years or decades to mature, and long adult life lets them make up for the huge losses of eggs and hatchlings.

In 2022 two large studies published in the journal Science compared aging across reptiles and amphibians in the wild and in zoos. They found that many turtles and tortoises age very slowly, and some show what biologists call negligible senescence: their risk of dying hardly rises as they get older. This does not mean turtles are immortal. They still get sick, injured or eaten, but in many species old age itself is not the main killer.

How do scientists tell a turtle’s age?

There is no simple way to read a wild turtle’s exact age. Scientists use three main methods:

1. Counting growth rings. The scutes (plates) on the shell form rings as the turtle grows, a bit like tree rings. This works reasonably well for young turtles, but rings can form more than once a year, and on old turtles they become too thin or worn to count.
2. Mark and recapture. Researchers mark turtles, often with small notches or tags, and find the same animals again years later. Studies lasting decades give the most reliable lifespan figures.
3. Bone rings. In dead turtles, growth layers in the bones can be counted under a microscope, a method called skeletochronology.

Because of this, very high ages for individual turtles are usually estimates. A turtle’s age is known exactly only when it hatched in captivity or was first marked as a hatchling.

Myths about turtle lifespans

Myth: all turtles live over 100 years. Only a few species regularly do. Many smaller turtles live 20 to 40 years, and most wild hatchlings never reach adulthood.

Myth: you can tell a turtle’s age by counting its rings. Only roughly, and only while it is young. For older turtles, ring counts usually underestimate age.