Darren Croft on killer whale matriarchs and the menopause

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Darren Croft studies one of the ocean’s most charismatic and spectacular animals – the killer whale. Orca are probably best known for their predatory behaviour: ganging up to catch hapless seals or attack other whales. But for the last fifteen years, Darren Croft’s focus has been on a gentler aspect of killer whale existence: their family and reproductive lives . Killer whales live in multi-generational family groups. Each family is led by an old matriarch, often well into her 80s. The rest of the group are her daughters and sons, and grand-children. Especially intriguing to Darren is that female orca go through something like the menopause - an extremely rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom, only documented in just five species of toothed whales and of course in humans. Halting female reproduction in midlife is an evolutionary mystery, but it is one which Darren Croft argues can be explained by studying killer whales. Darren is Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. He talks to Jim Al-Kalili about his research on killer whales, his previous work revealing sophisticated social behaviour in fish, his life on the farm, and the downsides and upsides of being dyslexic.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Andrew Luck-Baker

Transcript

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0:00.0	How did the richest people on the planet make their fortunes?
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0:34.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of the Life Scientific.
0:37.0	I'm Jim Allele, and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading scientists
0:42.0	and you get to find out what drives them.
0:44.4	So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy the episode.
0:48.0	My guest today is a biologist who's lucky enough to study one of the ocean's most charismatic and spectacular animals,
0:54.9	the killer whale. Orker are probably best known for their predatory behavior,
0:59.7	ganging up to catch hapless seals or attack other whales.
1:04.0	But for the last 15 years, Darren Crofts' focus has been on a gentler aspect of killer
1:08.6	whale existence, their family in reproductive lives. Killer Wales live in multi-generational family groups.
1:15.0	Each family is led by an old matriarch,
1:18.0	often well into her 80s.
1:20.0	The rest of the group are her daughters and sons and grandchildren.
1:24.0	Especially intriguing to Darren is that female orca go through something like the menopause,
1:29.1	an extremely rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom, only documented in a few other toothed whales and of course in humans.
	...

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