Gorilla Study Disproves Menopause Theory
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A study of gorillas at 17 North American zoos, led by researchers at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, is the first to document gorilla menopause.
The average age of the postmenopausal gorillas was 44. In American women, meno-pause hits around age 51. Many biologists believe menopause evolved because it gave human grandmothers more time to help care for their grandchildren. The new findings argue against the so-called “grandmother hypothesis” because female gorillas in the wild migrate away from their family groups and don’t hang around to care for the grandkids.
