Animal elders pass on wisdom like The Giver. The oldest members of endangered species need to be protected most, conservationists warned in a new review of more than 9,000 peer-reviewed papers on social and collective memory in wild animals. Older female elephants remember tipoffs to danger (like lions), postmenopausal orcas lead their pods to the best areas for salmon hunting, and deep-sea corals can shelter entire ecosystems for thousands of years. When animal herds lose their elders to poaching or climate change, they can fall apart, the researchers found — imagine if a school of fish lost the older members of the family who led everyone else to the best breeding grounds. The scientists are calling for “longevity conservation,” which prioritizes protecting older animals and the knowledge they share with the rest of their populations. MorningBrew
