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PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN DONOVAN
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By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE executive editor
One of the hardest life lessons I encountered as a kid was that, no matter what I did to protect my cats, I would probably outlive them. Various studies done since the 1950s show that the average lifespan for a domestic cat is between 13 and 17 years. That number plummets for outdoor cats, with several sources citing an average of five years due to the many threats they face, from cars to disease to larger predators. By contrast, the average human in the U.S. lives to be 78, according to the CDC. And since all my great-grandmothers and grandmothers lived into their 90s, the genetic odds are on me outlasting my feline companions.
The vague irony is that having cats may contribute to my own longevity. Research suggests that pet ownership can help lower blood pressure and stress, and certain pets can keep some people more active. My current cat Felix is 19 years young, and he still keeps me moving with a good chase up and down the stairs or even a brisk walk when the weather permits.
That last part is crucial if you care about quality as well as quantity, since the evidence keeps piling up that being active is one key to healthy aging. Just look at our close evolutionary cousins, the chimpanzees. Studies of lab chimps had long made it seem as if these animals aged like we did: developing heart disease and dementia and becoming increasingly frail. But as Tim Vernimmen reports for Nat Geo, observations of wild chimps paint a very different picture. Elderly apes in the wild have to keep moving to survive, and while they can lose muscle mass and suffer from dental issues and disease, these older animals maintain better weight, have lower cholesterol, and are generally more spry than their captive counterparts. (Pictured above, a chimp named Yogi in 2011 at a refuge in Uganda.)
This realization of the relative healthiness of wild chimps can help people take better care of chimps in zoos and former lab chimps now in sanctuaries. But it’s also a reminder to us humans of the dangers inherent in sedentary lifestyles. “It’s not physical activity, but inactivity, that makes us frail,” says anthropologist Melissa Emery Thompson of the University of New Mexico.
So thank you Felix, and Sally, and Harvey, and Snowball, and Milo, and all the other cats who have literally kept me on my toes over the years.
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