[OANNES Foro] Adaptive Prolonged Postreproductive Life Span in Killer Whales

[Mario Cabrejos]

Science 14 September 2012: 
Vol. 337 no. 6100 p. 1313 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1224198 


Adaptive Prolonged Postreproductive Life Span in Killer Whales
Emma A. Foster1,2, Daniel W. Franks3, Sonia Mazzi4, Safi K. Darden1, Ken C. Balcomb2, John K. B. Ford5, Darren P. Croft1,*
1Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, UK. 2Center for Whale Research, 355 Smugglers Cove Road, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA. 3Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK. 4Department of Mathematics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK. 5Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7, Canada. E-mail: d.p.croft en exeter.ac.uk

Abstract
Prolonged life after reproduction is difficult to explain evolutionarily unless it arises as a physiological side effect of increased longevity or it benefits related individuals (i.e., increases inclusive fitness). There is little evidence that postreproductive life spans are adaptive in nonhuman animals. By using multigenerational records for two killer whale (Orcinus orca) populations in which females can live for decades after their final parturition, we show that postreproductive mothers increase the survival of offspring, particularly their older male offspring. This finding may explain why female killer whales have evolved the longest postreproductive life span of all nonhuman animals. 
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