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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

Post-menopausal killer whales defend their sons from aggressors, study finds

Adult male killer whale with tooth rake marks.
Adult male killer whale with tooth rake marks. Photograph: Stewart macintyre/see caption

Post-menopausal killer whales protect their sons from getting injured in fights with other whales, scientists have found.

The study showed that males showed fewer tooth-rake marks – scars left when whales scrape their teeth across another’s skin – when their mother was still present and had stopped breeding. But the protective effect did not extend to daughters.

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