The world’s oldest known wild bird is back in her familiar stomping grounds — this time, with a new beau.
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross who is at least 74, returned to her annual nesting site at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian archipelago late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Region announced on social media this week.
This year, Wisdom not only laid an egg, but was seen “interacting with a male” that the wildlife agency identified as her new mate. (The septuagenarian was previously linked to a mate named Akeakamai for decades, but he hasn’t been seen in years.)
If all goes well, Wisdom’s egg will hatch in around two months. She’s been mother to about thirty surviving chicks over the years, with her most recent offspring hatching in 2021.
The fact that this elder bird is still alive, let alone still laying eggs, is astonishing. In 2021, after Wisdom’s latest chick hatched, seabird ecologist Richard Phillips told The New York Times the next-oldest albatross he’d ever heard of was 61.
Wisdom was fitted with an identification band around her ankle in 1956, and scientists have monitored her ever since. There are some skeptics who believe that something is amiss with the story, like perhaps the identification band was swapped out to another albatross at some point, as The Washington Post noted previously. But the numerous scientists interviewed in news stories over the years have generally treated Wisdom’s advanced age as fact.
“I think it’s impossible for us to look at that bird and not be stunned that she is still breeding and has laid an egg,” marine ecologist Dr. Carl Safina told the Times.