Wisdom Hatches Another Chick

The world's most famous and oldest recorded Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), Wisdom, hatched a new chick on February 1st. Wisdom lives on Midway Island and was banded in 1956 as part of a long term study that has identified 256 albatrosses since the late thirties. Biologists say the fertile bird has given birth to 37 chicks in her long lifespan. Biologists noticed pipping from the egg in late January. Because she is old by albatross standards, Wisdom may have had more than one mate in her lifetime. Albatrosses are known to mate for life, but they do find other mates if necessary in dance displays. Wisdom has been hatching and raising chicks with her current mate, Akeakamai, since at least 2012 when the male albatross was first banded by researchers. Wisdom also outlived the biologist, Chandler Robbins, who first banded her in 1956. Cockatoos raised in captivity have reached recorded ages of over 80, but in the wild they generally live to thirty or forty years of age. Many species are fertile into their old age, excepting primates and whales.

Midway, once a stop-over for flying boats and a contested US Navy base during WWII, is now part of the Midway Atoll Wildlife Refuge where the world's largest albatross colony nests each year. The atoll is a refuge for roughly 70% of the world’s Laysan albatrosses and 40% of black-footed albatrosses, along with endangered short-tailed albatrosses and 20 other bird species. A US Fish & Wildlife Biologist told an interviewer that Wisdom is an inspiration to wildlife lovers all over the world. Each time she returns to lay an egg, we find out more about these graceful seabirds and how long they can live given sufficient protected habitat. Each time is also a small miracle given the hazards they face during two years at sea and the negative effects of global heating, which causes their prey to flee to colder waters. [photo credits: UK Guardian]