Wonderful Wisdom – World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Her Latest Chick!

Proud mum yet again to a fluffy new chick, “Wisdom is rewriting history”

says Beth Flint of the USFWS

Have you met Wisdom? Let me introduce you. Wisdom, a Laysan albatross of Midway Atoll in the North Pacific, is a feathered celebrity. Much of her life (spanning 68 years and counting) is shrouded in mystery, but in recent years she has risen to fame as the world’s oldest known wild bird, and very possibly the world’s oldest mother.

Ornithologist Chandler Robbins first came face to beak with Wisdom in 1956, when Midway was still an active US Naval Air Station. He tagged her with a tiny band. As young Laysan albatrosses spend 5 years or so at sea before returning to their breeding ground for the first time since they fledged there, it’s a fair guess that Wisdom emerged from her egg into the light of day in about 1951, 5 years before Robbins’ encounter with her.

Then we have a nearly 50 year blank in Wisdom’s history, because it wasn’t until 2002 and quite by chance on a visit to Midway, that Robbins ran across her again. In 2006, exactly half a century after her first tag, the US Fish & Wildlife Service gave her a new band that would make tracking her easier. And track her they have ever since. Wisdom and her mate Akeakamai (nicknamed Mr Goo by the USFWS staff) have produced an egg and successfully raised a chick every year since, this breeding season no exception.

Why is this so remarkable?

After spending months alone at sea, Laysan albatrosses fly thousands of miles to be reunited with their mates on Midway Atoll. Laysans are the monogamous kind – they mate for life. For seven long months they take turns incubating their one precious egg and then guarding their chick while their partner forages for food. A process so demanding and energy-intensive that it’s more usual for these big birds to lay an egg only every other year.

Wisdom and her faithful partner Mr Goo have broken the mould!

Laysan albatross were slaughtered in their millions in the early 1900s, for no better reason than that albatross feathers were the latest fashion in hats. Fortunately, the birds are no longer hunted, but now they face other dangers. Ingestion of plastic and entanglement in fishing nets are serious ones, and having their eggs eaten by an invasive non-native species of mice another.

So every chick counts – which makes Wisdom and Mr Goo’s reproductive achievements all the more consequential. Super-mum Wisdom is reckoned to have successfully reared at least 36 chicks – not a bad legacy for a bird in her 7th decade of life!

“Midway Atoll’s habitat doesn’t just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses” said Kelly Goodale, USFWS Refuge Biologist. “If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home she is likely surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks. What a family reunion!”

Long may you flourish Wisdom and Mr Goo, and continue gracing the world with your beautiful offspring.

Help Wisdom, Mr Goo and their chicks – and all ocean animals by signing these petitions – thank you.

Ditch throwaway plastic packaging

Fight agains plastics pollution

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67 Year Old Mum in a Million Does It Again!

67 Year Old Mum in a Million – The Chick is Hatched!

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