BBC World Service – Discovery, The Life Scientific

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.

Source link

Latest

Cold Outreach Strategies That Actually Work in 2025

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Matthew McQuinn In this...

A concrete plan for sustainable cement | Ryan Gilliam

Cement is one of the most-consumed materials on Earth...

Chicken Egg Roll Bowl | High-Protein

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure...

Newsletter

spot_img

Don't miss

Cold Outreach Strategies That Actually Work in 2025

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Matthew McQuinn In this...

A concrete plan for sustainable cement | Ryan Gilliam

Cement is one of the most-consumed materials on Earth...

Chicken Egg Roll Bowl | High-Protein

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure...

Song Exploder – of Montreal

“Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” Kevin Barnes...
spot_imgspot_img

Cold Outreach Strategies That Actually Work in 2025

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Matthew McQuinn In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Matthew McQuinn, co-founder of Coldlytics, a...

A concrete plan for sustainable cement | Ryan Gilliam

Cement is one of the most-consumed materials on Earth — second only to water — and it accounts for a whopping eight percent of...