The female albatross Wisdom, the oldest wild bird in the worldlaid an egg at the age of 74 and for the first time in almost five years, reported in the last hours from the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Pacific region in the US (USFWS).
Wisdom, who is a long-winged Laysan albatross, returned to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on the northwestern tip of Hawaii and put what Experts estimate that it may be the sixtieth egg of her life. and the first in more than four years.
In total, the agency believes Wisdom has laid about 60 eggs and raised more than thirty chicks during her long life.
Jonathan Plissner, supervising wildlife biologist at the refuge where Wisdom is located, called this new bird egg “a special joy” and said recent activity seems to indicate she still has the energy and instincts to take on another calf.
“We are optimistic about the egg hatching,” Plissner said in an official statement.
Biologists identified and banded Wisdom for the first time in 1956 after laying an egg. Each year, millions of seabirds return to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean to nest and raise their chicks.
“Wisdom, in particular, has been doing this since the Eisenhower administration (1953-1961),” the statement boasts.
For decades Wisdom had the same partner, named Akeakamai, but this male albatross has not been seen for several years, while the famous female bird began performing courtship dances with other males.
The parents of the albatrosses they take turns incubating an egg for about seven months. The chicks fly to the sea about five or six months after hatching and spend most of their lives flying over the ocean and feeding on squid and eggs.
The USFWS rated Wisdom as “a global symbol of hope for all species that depend on the health of the ocean to survive.”
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