HONOLULU (AP) — The world’s oldest known seabird has laid another egg, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said Wednesday.
HONOLULU (AP) — The world’s oldest known seabird has laid another egg, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said Wednesday.
The Laysan albatross known as Wisdom is at least 64 years old but may be older. An ornithologist first put an identification band on her in 1956. She was spotted with her new egg over the weekend at Midway Atoll, the remove wildlife refuge where she has nested for years.
Refuge manager Dan Clark said the albatross has been taking turns incubating the egg with her mate. A chick will likely hatch from the egg in early February.
Clark said the oblong egg is about five inches long and about four times the size of the chicken egg.
Wisdom has had as many as 36 chicks. Wisdom laid an egg last year as well, but it had a crack and didn’t hatch.
Albatross lay just one egg a year. But it takes most of a year to incubate and raise a chick, and the seabirds sometimes take a year off from parenting after successfully raising a fledged bird.
Midway Atoll, the site of a pivotal World War II battle, is about 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu. The former Navy base is home to millions of seabirds and 70 percent of the world’s Laysan albatross population.