If you thought that experience and tutelage solely matters in the human race, then nature has proven you wrong. Female post menopausal Killer whales use their life experience too, often in teaching their salmon knowledge to other whales.
These whales were found by researchers in the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington State. Killer whales - like humans - stop reproducing at the age of about 40 years and live on into their 90s. Based on data collected by closely observing an endangered species of the whales in northern Pacific, Scientists from the University of Exeter in partnership with the University of York and the Center for Whale Research found out that the post-menopausal whales acted as leaders to the rest of the whales, males and females alike.
According to the research, the oldest female whale was seen to swim ahead of the rest of the group in a couple of scenarios. To better explain this behavior the team of researchers focused their attention on the whales' behavior especially when the salmon population (their food source) was critically low.
During this period, the post-menopause killer whales where seen to swim at the front of the hunting group with the younger sons following closely. The research revealed that killer whales direct more training on sons than daughters. According to Daniel Franks of York University, the sons possess a higher probability to transfer the desirable traits outside the group and therefore their offspring will not compete for resources as they will be born into another group.
There were instances where groups of killer whales died off drastically upon the death of the oldest female within the group. This is because the information pertaining survival and where to find food in hardship times had been cut off upon the death of the killer whale. This finding has brought to light the fact that information is stored in individual killer whales, and that it is of the utmost importance to the other whales it socializes with.
