Daphne Adams, age  9, of Plainfield, N,J, for her question:

What creature has the longest life span?

Keeping tabs on the birthdays of the animal kingdom is by no means an easy fob; Though some can be checked in zoos, most creatures live in a 1^2 ld state. They do not bother to keep records and if they have birthday parties they do not invite us to them. So our informa¬tion about the longest life span of the animal kingdom will not be complete until much more studying and snooping has been done.

However, as far as we know, the sea going tortoise may well hold the record. This hard shelled old moss back may live to celebrate his 350th birthday. Imagine blowing out those candles: The carp, a less glamorous relative of the goldfish, may live for two or three hundred years. Since he lives underwater, he doesn’t even try to blow out candles.  A crocodile may celebrate his 300th birthday. But, if he was given a candle he would probably eat it!

Though it is hard to keep tabs on the birthdays of deep sea whales, it is thought that they may live about 100 years. And there are plenty of records of centenarians among working elephants.

Tigers, lions and camels usually come to the end of their lives in about forty years. This puts them in an age group with the croaky bull frog, who can expect to take his part in the pond orchestra for about forty years.