At 68 years of age, the world’s oldest known wild bird is also something of a record breaker when it comes to the size of her family.
Wisdom, a female Laysan albatross, seems well set to become a mother yet again — for the 37th time.
Every year she and her long-term mate Akeakamai return to the same nesting spot on Midway Atoll, a National Wildlife refuge in the Hawaiian Archipelago that is home to the world’s largest colony of albatross.
“She first appeared back at her traditional nest site on November 29 and biologists on Midway have confirmed that she has laid an egg,” a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Pacific Region said.
Wisdom has attracted worldwide attention for years now. There may be even older breeding birds than her out there, but they have not been traced by biologists and conservationists.
Once the site of a decisive WWII naval battle between the U.S. and Japan in June 1942, the Midway Islands’ most famous visitor today is “a world renowned symbol of hope for all species that depend upon the health of the ocean to survive,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
She was first banded in 1956 by biologist Chandler Robbins on the Pacific’s Midway Atoll, where she was born. Robbins passed away in 2017, at the age of 98.
He was able to retrace Wisdom in 2002 in what USFWS described as “a chance encounter in a historic location.”
“In the past, many albatross were banded with aluminum bands that sometimes became corroded by sand and salt water. These early bands would often fall off in 20 years or less.
Wisdom’s bands, fortunately, were continuously replaced and because of meticulous record keeping associated with bird banding on Midway, biologists were able to confirm that she is the same bird first banded by Robbins,” wrote USFWS.
When Robbins first banded Wisdom in 1956 he estimated the bird to be around five years of age. He found her nest next to a military barracks on the island.
She was not named Wisdom until many years later, when biologists and researchers realized they were presented with a rare opportunity to observe the behavior and breeding activities of a female albatross over such an extensive period of time.
Wisdom and Akeakamai have been a faithful couple since 2006. Unusually for albatross, the pair have successfully raised chicks in several consecutive years during their time together. Most breeding pairs take a rest year after each chick.
The last time Wisdom became a mother was in February 2018.
Raising a chick is a time-consuming process that usually lasts up to seven months and is a shared responsibility between both parents.
This will most likely be the case with Wisdom’s 37th chick, unless something goes wrong. “In 2015, her egg was reported missing, which biologists say is just what happens sometimes,” according to the Guardian.
As biologists stationed at Midway Atoll continue to replace older bands as one of their ongoing tasks, it just might be the case that some of the other millions of albatross that return each year steals the title from Wisdom as the world’s oldest.
But for now, all eyes are on Wisdom, the most special bird of the 8,400 albatross banded during the 1956 bird survey.
On Wisdom’s life outside the Midway Atoll: her great longevity, which is common among albatross, has so far enabled Wisdom to fly over 6 million miles on her sea routes.
She might have flown back and forth to the Bering Sea or Costa Rica multiple times over, or perhaps checked in along the coasts of California and Japan, treating herself with fish eggs and squid along the way.
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The total distance that Wisdom has most likely traveled, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, is equal to an astonishing six journeys back and forth between Earth and the Moon. Long live the bird!