Oldest known killer whale ‘Granny’ thought to be dead

Granny, the world’s oldest known killer whale, has gone missing and is thought to be dead, scientists studying her have reported.

Believed to be more than a century old, the whale’s official designation was J2, and she has been an important focal point of research into the evolution of menopause and the roles of older female orcas.

Female orcas live far past their reproductive years, and they are one of only three mammals known to go through menopause, along with short-finned pilot whales and humans. Even our nearest primate cousins, chimpanzees, do not experience menopause. The fertility of chimpanzees fades with age and, in the wild they rarely live beyond childbearing age anyways.

Tracking Granny and other older female killer whales has revealed their essential role inside the family group. They slowly herd the pod as it eats, caring for other females’ young and feeding the bigger males. These matriarchs help their families to thrive, and the benefit they offer could indicate what pushes a species to evolve the capacity to go on living while not being able to reproduce.

Research Will Move Into the Future

While research into the roles of orca matriarchs and mammalian menopause will go on, it will likely do so without Granny.

“It was inevitable that this day was going to come but it is very sad news and a further blow to this population,” Darren Croft, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Exeter in the UK who has studied Granny and other older female orcas, told BBC News.

Croft said Granny had “been helping her family group to survive by sharing her knowledge of when and where to find food.”

The British research mused that the iconic whale must have lived through many incredible events, and watched as the seas around her changed, particularly in recent years.

“She lived through the live captures,” he told BBC News, “and in recent years her world has changed dramatically with dwindling salmon stocks and increases in shipping threatening the survival of this incredible population.

“Although J2 is gone we will continue to benefit for many decades to come, from the incredible data collected on her life over the last 40 years by the Center for Whale Research.”

—–

Image credit: CWR

The post Oldest known killer whale ‘Granny’ thought to be dead appeared first on Redorbit.

redOrbit.com
offers Science, Space, Technology, Health news, videos, images and reference information. For the latest science news, space news, technology news, health news visit redOrbit.com frequently. Learn something new every day.”