Celebrated Albatross Aims to Produce New Offspring at 75

The average life expectancy for humans worldwide is 73. Wisdom the albatross has beaten that by two years. Not only that, she is still laying eggs. The celebrated bird hatched her first chicks when President Eisenhower was still in the White House. That was before some of your grandparents were born! Now, Wisdom is giving it another go.

The Laysan albatross is nesting again at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii. It's the same spot where she was first witnessed laying eggs on December 10, 1956. The banded bird is believed to have laid more than 50 eggs in her lifetime. She has also flown more than 3 million miles in her lifetime. Her species makes annual treks from Asia to her Hawaiian nesting grounds. Wisdom's mate is also banded. He arrived on the island on November 26.   

“Wisdom has laid an egg in nearly the same spot every year that she has nested," said Jonathan Plissner in an email to Forbes magazine. He's a wildlife biologist on Midway Atoll. 

Plissner added that Wisdom was at least 28 years older than any of the other known albatrosses who arrived at the refuge in 2024.  

Bird experts have tracked Wisdom for decades. She was banded in 1956 by Chandler Robbins. He's a wildlife biologist who died in 2017. Albatrosses mate for life. But Wisdom appears to have outlived four known partners and laid eggs with three of them. Albatrosses lay one egg every year.

Unattached birds arriving at the refuge engage in ‘courtship dances.’ It involves strutting and honking and nudging each others’ beaks. Rangers believe that if Wisdom lays an egg this season her chick will hatch without a hitch. The success rate for her species is 75%.       

Thought Question: What is something in your life that you hope to keep doing for a very long time?

Photo of Wisdom and one of her chicks from Wikimedia Commons courtesy of John Klavitter and US Fish and Wildlife Service.