Not all creatures age at the same rate — here's why

200 year old whales, an 85 year old eel, a giant tortoise aged 190 years — and Ireland's tiniest mammal which dies after just a year

Ireland’s smallest mammal, the pygmy shrew and the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys  gigantea) from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world

‘For no man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied’, — Maurya in Riders to the Sea.

Senescence, the deterioration of our bodies with age, is unrelenting. Wild creatures too are subject to it, but some keep the grim reaper at bay more successfully than others.