With age comes wisdom, an old adage goes.

Now researchers report that there is truth to this among African elephants. Groups of elephants led by older matriarchs are more adept at locating and fending off predatory male lions.

“People had speculated before that older leaders had more knowledge, but it’s really hard to measure,” said Karen McComb, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sussex in England who led the study.

Dr. McComb and her colleagues used loudspeakers to blast lion roars, and then judged the reactions of elephants. They report their findings in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Groups with matriarchs older than 60 were able to determine more easily whether a lion’s roar was from a male or a female (males pose a greater threat), and respond accordingly.