A hundred young animals cannot replace one old veteran! The latest studies show that without experienced elders, nature loses its ability to respond to crises. We have to start looking at wildlife protection differently.
Memory as the key to survival
In modern human society, we have become accustomed to knowledge being stored in thick books, but today it is more often placed on servers and in digital archives, where information can be searched easily and almost at any time. Of course, there is no internet in the wild. That is why all the experience there about how to survive a catastrophic drought, where to dig up hidden water sources or where to safely pass through a landscape full of hunters, is simply stored in the heads of the oldest members of animal families. Even animals have their elders, without whom their community cannot do.
New scientific studies, such as , show that old elephant grandmothers, bison mothers or female whales carry a so-called collective memory on which the lives of their entire herds and families literally hang. But due to hunting, poaching and the way humans change the landscape, these oldest and most experienced animals are the first to disappear unnaturally. Because of this, wild animals receive information that pushes them back and threatens their lives.
Scientists have long studied how it is possible that some animal groups can survive even extreme natural disasters, while others, seemingly equally strong, die. The answer lies precisely in longevity. Old animals in the landscape function as living libraries full of experience from which everyone else draws.
- Elephants and their mind maps: When there is an extreme drought in Africa, which happens maybe once every fifty years, the young elephants have no idea what to do. It is precisely the oldest females at the head of the herd who remember from their childhood the way to the sunken watering holes, which do not dry up even in the worst of times. If such an elephant is missing, the herd often wanders confusedly in the dust and perishes of thirst.
- Whale knowledge of the ocean: Among killer whales, family groups are led by old females who can no longer have young themselves, but are indispensable to the family. In years when there are fewer salmon in the ocean, it is these experienced mothers who know exactly in which colder bays and depths the fish have hidden.
- Bison Migration and Traditions: For generations, bison have learned to precisely time their movements so that they always arrive at the meadows at the moment when the juiciest and most nutritious grass grows there. Young bison do not have this tradition and estimation in their genes, they learn it by simple repetition and following the oldest pieces on the trail.
Even man unwittingly kills wisdom
The problem is that human pressure on nature hits the oldest individuals the hardest, because they are simply the most visible, the slowest and sometimes even sweeter than the others, yet they resist natural predators. For example, poachers logically hunt elephants with the largest tusks, which are inherently the oldest and most experienced males and females. Bison or whale hunters, on the other hand, often shoot the largest pieces because they represent a more valuable catch. Seemingly leaving behind a “rejuvenated herd or flock”.
But when these animals disappear, it’s not just that the number of pieces in the table decreases. The whole group will find themselves in deep social chaos. Young elephants without the guidance of older males tend to be aggressive, attack people and fail to behave socially. Herds without old females in turn lose their ability to respond to danger. They cannot evaluate correctlyif the roar of a lion in the distance is a real threat or just a warning, and they panic unnecessarily.
Nature conservation must change its strategy
So far, human understanding of the issue of herds has had significant cracks. Now it turns out that focusing only on the number of pieces is not enough. The conclusions of the studies show that a hundred young animals without experience cannot replace one old one in the wild memorial. He is the one who can protect them all.
The new strategy in is therefore extremely important. It includes not only stricter bans on trophy hunting, but also, for example, the creation of migration corridors that various species have used for hundreds of years. Stability in the landscape is represented precisely by
