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Wisdom - The Venerable Albatross 'SuperMom'

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
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Wisdom, the albatross supermom, has done it again. At 67, the world's oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at her home on the Midway Atoll.

https://goo.gl/images/6gjmVV

Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, return each year to the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to nest and raise a single chick. On December 13, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) confirmed the pair were incubating a new egg.

In her long life, Wisdom has outlived several mates and raised anywhere from 30 to 35 chicks.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/birds-animals-oceans-parents-albatross/

Let’s hope that mother and baby do well.

maximus otter
 
Albatross chicks are seriously weird, growing, at one point, to be larger than the parents. The vast birds are, I gather, endangered by the plastic waste they hoover up from their fishing-grounds :(
 
The world’s oldest known living bird has become a parent at the ripe old age of 70.

The fittingly-named Wisdom is a laysan albatross that was first recorded by scientists way back in 1956. She was estimated to be five years old at the time – the age at which these birds reach sexual maturity.

Last month, Wisdom hatched what is believed to be her 40th chick.

Wisdom holds the record as the oldest wild specimen documented during the 90-year history of the U.S. and Canadian bird-banding research program.

She has been raising chicks with her current mate, named Akeakamai, since at least 2010, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Since being tagged back in the fifties, the albatross has logged about 3 million flying miles, the equivalent of six round trips to the Moon.

‘It’s really exciting to see that these birds are long-living and still raising chicks at 60 years old or older,’ said John Klavitter, USFWS biologist, who spotted Wisdom with her chick in February.
 
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Sad news, warming oceans cause Albatross couples to split.

When it comes to fidelity, birds fit the bill: Over 90 percent of all bird species are monogamous and — mostly — stay faithful, perhaps none more famously than the majestic albatross.

Albatross couples rarely separate, sticking with the same breeding partner year after year. But when ocean waters are warmer than average, more of the birds split up, a new study finds.

In years when the water was warmer than usual, the divorce rate — typically less than 4 percent on average — rose to nearly 8 percent among albatrosses in part of the Falkland Islands, researchers report November 24 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It’s the first evidence that the environment, not just breeding failure, affects divorce in wild birds. In fact, the team found that during warmer years, even some females that had bred successfully ditched their partners.

The result suggests that as the climate changes as a result of human activity, higher instances of divorce in albatrosses and perhaps other socially monogamous animals may be “an overlooked consequence,” the researchers write.

Albatrosses can live for decades, sometimes spending years out on the ocean searching for food and returning to land only to breed. Pairs that stay together have the benefits of familiarity and improved coordination, which help when raising young. This stability is particularly important in dynamic, marine environments, says Francesco Ventu. ...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/albatross-bird-divorce-ocean-warm-breeding-climate
 
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