‘Amazing’ albatross raises chick at age 60
Baku, March 9 (AZERTAC). They call her Wisdom, a 60-something Laysan albatross, and federal scientists report she`s become the oldest known wild bird to raise a chick.
The chick was found in a survey of nesting grounds last month in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. The bird appears healthy and will probably fly to sea this summer, says biologist Bruce Peterjohn of the U.S. Geological Survey. Chandler Robbins, a USGS scientist, first banded Wisdom for tracking purposes in 1956, when she was at least 5 years old. Wisdom has been banded five times with an identification tag on the leg that lets scientists follow her movements.
"Just the idea of a bird 60 years old or more still bearing young is amazing," Peterjohn says. Only one other wild bird, an albatross of another species, is known to have lived longer — 61. Wisdom will tie that bird`s record if she lives another year, Peterjohn says. "Most Laysan albatrosses live to 30 or 40. Just to make it to 60 is pretty incredible."
"It is also amazing that we know the age of this bird because of banding efforts that went on decades ago and that the same individual was found almost 60 years later among literally millions of other birds breeding on the island. It really is a needle in a haystack," says wildlife biologist Lindsay Young of Pacific Rim Conservation in Honolulu.
Since the typical albatross flies 50,000 miles every year, the biologists estimate that Wisdom has logged about 3 million miles in the air over a lifetime. She probably has raised about 30 chicks. About 2 feet long, possessing a 6-foot wingspan, Laysan albatrosses are one of 19 albatross species listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
U.S. and Canadian scientists have banded about 64.5 million birds since 1920 and successfully tracked about 4.5 million of them. Robbins rebanded Wisdom in 2003. Robbins has retired but still works with USGS biologists in the bird banding program. "He is very proud of this bird, as you can imagine," Peterjohn says.
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