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Demographic and hormonal evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees.
- Source :
-
Science (New York, N.Y.) [Science] 2023 Oct 27; Vol. 382 (6669), pp. eadd5473. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Oct 27. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Among mammals, post-reproductive life spans are currently documented only in humans and a few species of toothed whales. Here we show that a post-reproductive life span exists among wild chimpanzees in the Ngogo community of Kibale National Park, Uganda. Post-reproductive representation was 0.195, indicating that a female who reached adulthood could expect to live about one-fifth of her adult life in a post-reproductive state, around half as long as human hunter-gatherers. Post-reproductive females exhibited hormonal signatures of menopause, including sharply increasing gonadotropins after age 50. We discuss whether post-reproductive life spans in wild chimpanzees occur only rarely, as a short-term response to favorable ecological conditions, or instead are an evolved species-typical trait as well as the implications of these alternatives for our understanding of the evolution of post-reproductive life spans.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1095-9203
- Volume :
- 382
- Issue :
- 6669
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Science (New York, N.Y.)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 37883540
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add5473