The oldest known wild bird in the world laid about 74 mature eggs, U.S. wildlife officials said, in the first four years.
The longest-living seabird, the Laysan albatross, has returned to the Middle National Atoll Deer It has taken refuge on the northwest bank of the Hawaiian Islands and laid what experts estimate to be 60 eggs, the Pacific Fish & Wildlife Service said on Facebook later this week.
Wisdom and her mate Akeakamai had been returning to the atoll in the Pacific Ocean to lay and hatch eggs since 2006. Laysan albatrosses mate for life and lay one egg per year. But Akeakamai has not been seen for several years and Wisdom began dating another male when she returned last week, officials said.
“We are optimistic that the egg will hatch,” Jonathan Plissner, a wildlife biologist at Middle Atoll, said in a statement. Every year millions of seabirds return to the refuge to nest and raise their young.
Albatross parents take turns incubating the egg for about seven months. The chicks fly into the sea about five to six months after they are laid. They spend most of their lives flying over the ocean and feeding on squid and eggs.
Wisdom was first mated as an adult in 1956 and raised the same number of chicks, Plissner said.
The typical lifespan of a Laysan albatross is 68 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.