Adaptive Prolonged Postreproductive Life Span in Killer Whales

Foster, Emma; Franks, Daniel W.; Mazzi, Sonia; Darden, Safi K.; Balcomb, Ken C.; Ford, John K. B.; Croft, Darren P.

doi:10.1126/science.1224198

Cited by 176 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…There is mounting evidence that menopause evolved via inclusive fitness benefits gained by helping kin; both postreproductive humans [11][12][13][14] and killer whales [15] increase the reproductive success and/or survival of their relatives. But how postreproductive females help their kin remains enigmatic.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Knowledge, Leadership, and the Evolution of Menopause in Killer Whales

Brent

Franks

Foster

et al. 2015

Obstetrical &Amp; Gynecological Survey

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110

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Knowledge, Leadership, and the Evolution of Menopause in Killer Whales

Brent

Franks

Foster

et al. 2015

Obstetrical &Amp; Gynecological Survey

Self Cite

110

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“…Household resources in part generated by sisters are used to feed brothers, as we have shown that brothers can be a cost to their sisters. Interestingly, in killer whales, mothers are thought to support sons for this reason and sons have been observed to die at a much higher rate once their mothers are gone [26,31] ( perhaps because sisters have less reproductive interest in their brother's fitness than do their mothers). It remains to be seen whether Mosuo males do worse after their mother dies, but we did note that older males do sometimes leave their natal residence to join their wives' households later in life [5].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive competition between females in the matrilineal Mosuo of southwestern China

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The matrilineal Mosuo of southwestern China live in communal households where brothers and sisters of three generations live together (duolocal residence), and men visit their wives, who reside elsewhere, only at night in 'visiting' marriages. Here we show that these communally breeding sisters are in reproductive conflict, in the sense that they share the resources needed to reproduce. We analyse determinants of reproductive success in females and males, and show that co-resident female kin are in competition; the more female kin reside in the household, the more reproductive success is reduced. Male reproductive success, however, is not determined by the kin in his natal household; duolocal males are not in reproductive conflict with their siblings. Competition with female cousins can be worse than that between sisters. We also find that female work on the farm (which is the main communal resource) is not equal. We use a 'tug-of-war' model of reproductive skew generated by incomplete control, to model the patterns of effort put into competition between sisters and cousins. The model predicts that more dominant (older) sisters will put less effort into reproductive conflict than will less dominant (younger) sisters; but younger sisters will also have lower reproductive success because they are less efficient at gaining access to the shared resource. Both predictions are consistent with our data. Younger sisters work less in the fields than do older sisters, which may represent a form of conflict or may be because their average relatedness to the household is lower than that of their more fertile older sisters.

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“…Moreover, pilot whales are organised in closed matrilineal units, similar to killer whales, for which the rearing of young animals and the interaction between the related individuals seem to play a major role in structure and dynamics (Amos et al 1991, de Stephanis et al 2008b. The deaths of killer whale mothers directly affect the survival of their offspring, even long after weaning (Foster et al 2012). Therefore, these potential additive deaths caused indirectly by the epizootic likely compensate the bias.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of a morbillivirus epizootic on long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas in Spanish Mediterranean waters

Wierucka¹,

Verborgh²,

Meade³

et al. 2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas are a commonly encountered species in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2006−2007, an outbreak of the dolphin morbillivirus in the Western Mediterranean resulted in increased mortality of this species. The aim of this study was to determine whether survival rates differed between clusters of Spanish Mediterranean pilot whales, and how the epizootic influenced these survival rates. Photo-identification surveys were conducted between 1992 and 2009. Association indices were used to define clusters of individuals that associate with each other more frequently than with others. Based on a Cormack-JollySeber survival rate model, apparent survival rate estimates varied from 0.821 to 0.995 over 11 clusters for the 1992−2009 period. When the effect of the morbillivirus outbreak was modeled, 3 clusters with distinctly lower survival rates from previous models presented lower estimates after the outbreak (survival rate dropped from 0.919 [95% CI: 0.854−0.956] to 0.547 [95% CI: 0.185−0.866]), suggesting a negative influence of the epizootic or other unknown additive factors on certain clusters.

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Adaptive Prolonged Postreproductive Life Span in Killer Whales

Abstract: Killer whale mothers continue to help their adult male offspring to survive long after ceasing reproduction.

Cited by 176 publications

References 6 publications

Ecological Knowledge, Leadership, and the Evolution of Menopause in Killer Whales

Ecological Knowledge, Leadership, and the Evolution of Menopause in Killer Whales

Reproductive competition between females in the matrilineal Mosuo of southwestern China

Effects of a morbillivirus epizootic on long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas in Spanish Mediterranean waters

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