February
8, 2019
Updated
February 8, 2019 2:58pm
Wisdom’s
mate, Akeakamai, watches over the new albatross chick this week at Midway
Atoll. Wisdom, estimated to be 68 years old, hatched this chick over the past
week.
Wisdom,
the world’s oldest-known wild bird, has hatched yet another chick at Midway
Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
The
Laysan albatross supermom is at least 68 years old, according to U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service officials, and has given birth to and raised at least 31
chicks in her lifetime.
Wildlife
officials first spotted Wisdom at her nest site at Midway on Nov. 29, where she
soon laid an egg. The chick hatched this week, according to the Fish and
Wildlife Service.
“She’s
incredibly powerful as a symbol of why we do what we do and why people all over
the world pay attention to her,” said Beth Flint, a Fish and Wildlife Service
biologist, in a news release. “Wisdom is rewriting history about our
understanding of survivorship, how long birds live, and how often they breed.”
Laysan
albatrosses mate for life, and only one egg is laid per year, so they do not
commonly return every year to do so. Since 2006, however, Wisdom and her mate,
Akeakamai, have returned to Midway Atoll at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National
Monument to lay and hatch an egg.
After the
egg is laid, the albatross parents spend about seven months incubating it. They
take turns, with one incubating the egg, while the other forages for food.
After another five to six months, the chicks fledge, or fly out to sea, where
they spend most of their lives soaring over the ocean and feeding on squid and
fish eggs.
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