What can killer whales teach us about the menopause?

Granny is the oldest known killer whale - a female with a vital role in her pod

The menopause is a puzzle for biologists. Why would the female of a species cease to reproduce half way through her life, when natural selection favours characteristics that help an individual's genes survive? A study of killer whales - one of only two mammals apart from humans to undergo the menopause - is providing clues.
Granny is very spritely for a centenarian. When I finally catch sight of San Juan Island's local celebrity, she leaps clear out of the ocean to delighted gasps from everyone on my boat.
Granny is a killer whale, or orca.
She lives in a coastal area of the North Pacific, close to Vancouver and Seattle, known as the Salish Sea. And while she is affectionately known as "Granny", her formal name is J2 - an alpha-numeric title that identifies her as a member of a population known as the Southern Resident orcas.
It is a clan of 83 killer whales in three distinct pods - J, K and L-pod - all of which return to this area of coastal Pacific waterways every summer. The network of inlets and calm inshore sea is peppered with forested and mountainous islands. Its beauty makes it popular with tourists - especially whale-watchers.

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