Hi Evan,

Snip " really must disagree. All animals live the longest in the wild. (This excludes predation, which obviously shortens their lives in some cases.)"endsnip

It depends on what you are referring to.. In general, as husbandry techniques advance, longevity in captivity will outstrip that seen in the wild, however it can take awhile to get to that point.
What people often confuse is what is known as median longevity and maximal longevity. Median longevity is the average length of time you can expect 50% of that species to live which is variable due to many conditions (look at average human longevities based on country) while maximal longevity is the longest time a species has been known to live. It is possible that the median longevity may be greater for a species in the wild (which is doubtful for anurans due to the massive loss as tadpoles and metamorphs in the wild) but maximal is usually much longer in captivity.

Ed

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