Hail Natures Queens!

Greetings everybody!

Its the best time of the week again it is POST day! Oh yeah and it is Friday...
Moving along did you guys catch Beyonces performance at the Superbowl? If you answered yes, then you may recall that as usual Beyonce put on a fierce show and it got me thinking, where does one seek such inspiration to be so naturally fierce. I found my answer from the female bosses of nature, check it out! 

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Killer Whales:

Easily recognisable from iconic movies such as Free Willy, Killer Whales otherwise known as Orcinus orca are the first animals of the post to be mentioned for leading ladies. These giant dolphins, live in pods ranging from five to fifty members all being extremely social with one another to help form long lasting ties. 

Interestingly, all pods are matriarchal, meaning, they are lead by the female line. Ever male and female remain with their maternal pod for the rest of their lives. Some pods have even be found to still be lead by who they suspect is the grandmother to the pod!

Killer whales have a strong female support group, where a birthing mother is never left on her own. At the very least, one female member of the maternal pod will play the role of midwife when the baby makes its debut. This midwifery role played by other female members is key, as it is crucial that the baby is carefully directed to the surface of the water to take its first breath.

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It is near to impossible to mention killer whales without mentioning their high levels of intelligence. There are three types of killer whale: resident, transient and offshore, each of these types differ in their diets and where they live. As such, the juveniles found in each type are automatically enrolled into a ‘hunting school’ like programme where they are passed on knowledge on key hunting strategies such as stunning prey with tail strike or wave washing seals of ice. Check out this video below of a matriarch and her pod working together to bring down a seal.

Following on with today's theme we are putting the spotlight on the Queen of the Jungle, Lionesses:

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Previous research has shown that a pride of lions is led by the females, with the male being a temporary but essential section in the life of a lioness. Looking at a pride of lionesses, the concept of sisterhood has never been made clearer. All lionesses within a pride are related to one another by birth whether they be a grandmother, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, or aunts.

Unlike male lions, lionesses spend their lives on their natal territory, with relationships formed from birth. Not ones to leave a sister behind, if one was to fall ill, or injured on a hunt her female led support network will provide her with food and look after the cubs. Sense of sisterhood even stretches into all lionesses synchronising when they are in heat, resulting in all of them birthing at the same time! However, this means that all the adult females can suckle each other's cubs. Sisterhood!

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Of course, rearing cubs is not the entire life of a lioness, they are also the prides only source of food as male lions rarely partake in this activity. Close knit ties aids in their hunting strategies, as they rely on teamwork to bring down prey larger than themselves. United, a pride of lionesses also have the power to see off lone wandering males threatening their territories whilst the male lions keep off other wandering male coalitions. Check out the BBC video clip below!

Kings and Queens of their kingdoms, formed through the stability of the pride, a stability shaped through the lionesses rearing the future generation, feeding the members and maintaining the territory in the absence of the males.

Using the words from Sasha Fierce herself in Run the World (Girls) Lionesses are:

One of the biggest matriarchal societies in nature is found to be in our very own European honey bees. 

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Each colony is made up of hundreds of committed workers all infertile daughters ruled over by a single queen bee. Every worker plays their part in extending and maintaining their hive, at the same time as raising their sisters and making foraging trips for nectar and pollen, that’s a lot of work! 

Each worker bee has a lifespan of about four-five weeks, during this time they move from carrying out duties in the nest to using their wings in nectar-gathering ventures, so, like a graduation ceremony almost.

What about our Queen Bee? Well, when the colony reaches a certain colony size she founds a new colony leaving behind an heir, the next Queen Bee. In order to commit completely to her role of birthing the next generation, she gets all the sperm she would require to produce offspring for the rest of her life (5 years)  in one sexual encounter.

There are so many examples of leading women in nature such as hyenas and many human societies also. However, I thought one example of an ideal world that we are all striving towards is equality of the sexes, in such case Wolves are second to none for this.

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Wolves have achieved a perfect balance whereby the close knit pack of about 8-12 individuals are ruled over by an alpha female and alpha male. These highest ranking individuals together make the best decisions to protect both the pack and their territory. I am not going to talk about them too much know as they will be featured in a species of the week post very soon!

Nonetheless, in terms of nature's power couple wolves are definitely in the top 5!

That wraps it up again! Have an awesome weekend guys and remember to keep up with my twitter account.

Biobunch,

Over and out