How come smaller dogs generally havw longer life spans than larger dogs, but larger animals, like horses, have an even longer lifespan?
In: Biology
Most mammals hearts beat the same number of times before you die approximately 1.5 Billion.
Smaller animals hearts beat faster and larger animals beat slower.
There’s a bit more too it and there are obviously exceptions and some animals like jelly fish don’t even have hearts.
Within the same species like dogs for example a larger heart might pump less frequently but they have increases the risk of diseases and arthritis and cancer and more strain on their hearts that make them live significantly shorter lives on average.
The longest living dogs ever are not the smallest dogs breads but actually smallish-medium size dogs.
Portuguese Rafeiro do Alentejo breed has the record for longest living dog at 30 years and they average 35-40kg.
If you look within a species most animals will have a bell curve where being about average size provides the longest natural life expectancy but across species larger animals with slower beating hearts generally live longer.
Latest Answers