Who knew you could learn from a whale? I certainly did not until I heard of Shachi, who kind of defines large and in charge. She is an orca whale with a distinguishing tall hooked dorsal fin. Scientists have been watching her and her pod a for number of years, and have come to realize she is the reason her pod of whales is doing so well. The orca society is matriarchal with the female whales leading their charges to rich hunting grounds, helping the inexperienced learn how to hunt, and have even been seen sharing their catch with young novices.
But Shachi, a forty year old grandmother, is an example of what scientists are calling the “grandmother effect.” During a period when the Chinook salmon, a fish the orca rely on for food, decreased in number, a number of the calves in other pods born during that period did not survive. But this was not the case in Shachi’s pod, for she participated in caring for the young calves along with their mothers.
Orcas quit reproducing at around 40 and as one scientist put it “they are swimming around not doing the one thing that evolution wants them to do ---make copies of themselves.” But Shachi, as a non-reproducing female, is the leader of her pod. Since she does not have calves of her own to nurture, she has more time and resources to share with the other members of her pod. Perhaps we human grandmothers, as we watch our grandchildren struggle with the demands and complications of growing up, might do well to imitate Shachi, who has left reproduction behind, and is passing on the knowledge distilled from her long years swimming in the deep.