I am alive.

Ooooh, this is becoming exciting. ??first GN romance [heart emoticon]

I do like your name orca did you choose it because orcas are such brilliant matriarchs?

Matriarch would be assuming I'm female JessM!

Ah, a light bulb moment has just occurred.

BTW, jess, are all male orcas brilliant matriarchs as well? #teasing

oh well yes, my default assumption is that members will be female unless they indicate otherwise because the overwhelming majority are female (I suspect). But no reason why a man might not think:
It's called gransnet. Which members of the animal world make good grans... ?well its a choice between elephants and orcas I think. Wolves possibly.
No offence meant orca and you have every right to maintain a smokescreen around your gender identity if you wish.

We are members of the animal world and we make very good grans. That's one of the reasons humans are so successful.

I do wish people wouldn't talk about the animals world as if we weren't part of it.

We have mainly patriarchal societies though, whereas elephants, and Jess suggests orcas, have matriarchal ones. But that's a separate thing from whether a species contains good grans.

I expect other apes have good grans too, and possibly all primates.

Isn't Jewish society matriarchal?

I stand corrected Bags but the fact that humans make brilliant grans surely does not need to be restated on this forum
Jewishness is transmitted down the maternal line i believe galen. Does not mean that their society is matriarchal though. Only 23% of Knesset are women and orthodox Jewish families have very rigid gender roles I believe.
not sure about apes being good grans bags . I seem to remember that because they do not have the menopause, and therefore carry on having babies most of their lives, they are mainly focussed on their own latest offspring rather than adult daughters' offspring. Don't remember seeing anything about apes being interested in grandchildren while reading on the subject of ape behaviour. And ape societies tend to be dominated by alpha males. Elephant and orca societies are, I believe, led by grandmothers.
Oh there is the case of Lions of course - though whether you consider a society in which the males lie round looking magnificent and the females do all the hunting matriarchal or not I am not sure. New males, when taking over a pride, kill all the cubs so that the females come into oestrus.

I think you're right about other primate grannies, jess. Fancy forgetting about the menopause!! But chimps, for instance, do have 'aunties' who help with childcare, which amounts to a very similar thing.

The other animal that has menopause is a whale, is it not? Heading wikiwards....

Yep. Thought so. Orcas. But presumably only the females

There are female heirarchies within the male patriarchy in chimp societies too. Possibly also gorillas.

I need to read Jane Goodall again.

There was some interesting research earlier this year about the fact that the survival rates of adult male orcas was higher if their mums were still around

We have to be careful about our perceptions of other animals' social lives especially when looking at evidence presented by male observers/scientists whose picture of the norm has been shaped by generations of male observers/scientists. For example, it is generally accepted that the big strong stallion is the herd ruler/king/controller among wild horses. But, in reality, it is the alpha females – who do not form a harem – who decide who they will accept as the big strong stallion, whether they will breed with him or even let him into their matriarchal community.

Meerkats live in a matriarchal society [I watch that series with Bill Nighy in a sort of denial ]...

Yes absent there was some fine wildlife filming in the canadian wilderness last night on TV about wolves. In which the daddy wolf got the starring role.

Orca

What part of easter are we talking about?.
I will be visiting some friends in North Wales from the Friday to the Monday.

Frank

Hunter & Orca perhaps your private arrangements should be private?

And there is no prospect of marriage etc.
I want all of my estate to be split between my 2 daughters when they pass on.

Frank

Funny how men think all women want to marry them.

Frank I think you will find Orca only wants to know if you are a real person. She doesn't want to marry you. If she is a she.

Hi Faye

A woman wanted to marry my father but soon changed her mind when she realised the legal situation with the house in the fact I half owned it and had the right to live in it.
I was amazed how many people thought the house should have gone to her.

Frank

Hello Frank

Be careful Orca could be that woman who wanted to marry your father.

Faye.

Hunter has it occurred to you that some people are simply what they appear? There are lots of really nice people in the world who are not after what they can get. Perhaps Orca is also wondering what you want from her/him?