New Evidence Suggests Wild Chimpanzees Undergo Menopause
Humans are outliers for the way many of us, along with a handful of toothed whale species and Asian elephants, will live well beyond our reproductive years.
The rarity of menopause among animals has long puzzled researchers, and so has its origins since our close primate relatives didn't appear to share this marker of fertility's end.
Or so we thought. Researchers have discovered a remote population of wild chimpanzees in Uganda do in fact live decades after they go through menopause, displaying similar hormonal changes as those seen in humans.
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-evidence-suggests-wild-chimpanzees-undergo-menopause
This is fantastic. They knew estrogen levels and births declined with age, but they'd never seen acrual menopause measured by hormone levels until now in a wild population. The real eye opener is how long they live.
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