The oldest known bird in the wild is a female Laysan Albatross
named Wisdom, and US Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they
were glad to report that she appeared in Hawaii about two weeks
ago, with a mate.
“We expect her back any day now to lay her egg,” said Bret
Wolfe, deputy manager of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife
Refuge,
Wisdom has been flying to Hawaii’s Midway Atoll to raise chicks
year after year since 1956, when scientists first started tracking
her. They estimate that she was around five years old when they
attached her tracking band, making her at least 64 now.
“What is amazing is that 38 years ago when I was stationed on
Midway, I may have walked right by her,” wrote Facebook user Ken
Gill, in a comment on the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National
Monument.
Midway Atoll is the world largest
nesting ground for albatrosses, sea birds that can fly thousands of
miles without ever flapping their wings (which span up to six
feet). Wildlife officials estimate that Wisdom has flown 50,000
miles a year, or between two and three million miles since she was
first banded.
That Wisdom is still alive is remarkable—sea bird populations
have decline by 70% in the last half-century—as is her
continued parenting. An albatross can lay one egg per year.
Successfully incubating, hatching, and raising the chick takes five
to six months.
“Her ability to continue to hatch chicks during the last half
century is beyond impressive despite the threats that albatross
face at sea,” said biologist Pete Leary, in a news release
from the wildlife refuge in 2014, shortly after Wisdom had hatched
a new chick.
Albatrosses usually mate for life, and both parents take care of
the chick from incubation to fledging. Officials speculate that
Wisdom has had more than one mate, however, and she’s probably
raised 35 or 36 chicks. She lost her egg last year, and other years
she and her mate may have simply taken breaks from breeding.
Scientists have limited knowlege
of the reproductive capacities of various bird species, and whether
Wisdom will run out of eggs before she runs out of life is
unknown.
