Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The oldest bird in the northern hemisphere is raising a chick, puzzling scientists with her longevity.
A Laysan albatross named Wisdom that was first tagged by scientists decades ago has been spotted with a chick in a remote coral atoll near northwestern Hawaii.
Wisdom was first banded by a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in 1956 when she was incubating an egg at the same location in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. She was estimated at the time to be at least 5 years old, the earliest age at which albatrosses breed.
Laysan albatross, also known as “gooney birds,” commonly breed at eight or nine years after a mating process that takes several years. This means Wisdom is at least 60 years old.
“To know that she can still successfully raise young at age 60-plus, that is beyond words,” Bruce Peterjohn, the chief of the North American Bird Banding Program, said in a statement.
“While the process of banding a bird has not changed greatly during the past century, the information provided by birds marked with a simple numbered metal band has transformed our knowledge of birds,” he added.
Wisdom has worn out five bird bands since she was first documented. She successfully fledged a chick last year and was spotted in her usual location in January incubating an egg. She is estimated to have raised at least 30 to 35 chicks throughout her life.
Albatrosses choose a mate that they keep for life and lay only a single egg in a year, although they may skip a year and take a rest from breeding. It takes them nearly the whole year to incubate and raise a chick, which they feed with regurgitated fish eggs and squid.
The most legendary of all birds, albatrosses are capable of flying long distances with specially adapted wings that can span 7 feet for Laysans and as much as 11 feet for wandering albatrosses. The birds often glide through the air, minimizing the physical exertion otherwise required for long flights.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Laysan albatrosses spend the first three to five years after fledging at sea. The birds similarly spend their time never touching land over the ocean during the non-breeding part of the year, leading scientists to conclude that the animals sleep while flying.
Wisdom is estimated to have flown about 50,000 miles in each year of her adult life, a distance equal to four to six trips from the Earth to the moon and back again.
Her record as a mother while being the oldest bird in the northern hemisphere will provide scientists with data to support conservation efforts. All but two of the 21 species of albatrosses are in danger of extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The birds drown after diving for bait used for longline fishing, or die from being hooked on a longline dyed blue and deployed at night. According to the USGS, chicks also die from lead poisoning from old paint, and from dehydration caused by being unknowingly fed regurgitated food containing plastic and other trash floating in the ocean.
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