When a female orca whale can no longer provide her pod with baby orcas, she becomes the group's leader.
According to Smithsonian.com, authors of a study published in the journal Current Biology found post-menopausal orcas to have survival skills valuable to the entire pod. Unlike many animals, female orca whales can live well beyond menopause and the new study shows they can serve an integral purpose after they can no longer reproduce.
"Menopause is one of nature's great mysteries," study lead author Lauren Brent, of the University of Exeter, said in a press release. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that the value gained from the wisdom of elders may be one reason female killer whales continue to live long after they have stopped reproducing."
Male orca whales typically live to see 50 years of age, which is the same age females lose the ability to bear offspring. By a common theory in the animal kingdom, this would be a logical age for females to die as well. However, female orcas can live up to 40 years beyond menopause.
"One way post-reproductive females may boost the survival of their kin is through the transfer of ecological knowledge," Brent told Smithsonian.com. "The value gained from the wisdom of elders can help explain why female killer whales and humans continue to live long after they have stopped reproducing."
It is this experience and longevity that makes post-menopausal female orca whales invaluable to their pods.
"In humans, it has been suggested that menopause is simply an artifact of modern medicine and improved living conditions," study senior author Darren Croft, also of the University of Exeter, said in the release. "However, mounting evidence suggests that menopause in humans is adaptive. In hunter-gatherers, one way that menopausal women help their relatives, and thus increase the transmission of their own genes, is by sharing food. Menopausal women may have also shared another key commodity: information."
