62-year-old Laysan albatross is still going strong

She’s at least 62, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. Laysan albatross Wisdom can still dance in a way that can attract a mate.

Wisdom, who has likely outlived a few mates, laid an egg about Nov. 28 on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and on Sunday hatched a healthy chick, possibly her 35th, making her the oldest wild bird documented to have done so.

"Given the fact that 62 is quite old, I would guess she’s on her second or third mate, but she could have her original mate," said John Klavitter, wildlife biologist and Deputy Wildlife Refuge Manager at Midway.

Laysan albatrosses mate for life. They are sexually mature at 3 or 4, usually start breeding at 8 or 9 and live on average to their mid-20s before they are taken by a predator or starve to death during a bad food year.

Wisdom may be nearing the end of longevity; indications are that Laysan albatrosses could live up to 75, Klavitter said.

Albatrosses remain at sea until it’s time to return to their breeding grounds, but "if they don’t find their mate for a couple of seasons, they say, OK, my mate’s not coming back," Klavitter said, and look for another.

So what would attract a younger male to mate with this old bird? First, it’s the females who wander around, while the males stay put.

Something happens during their elaborate courtship dance that determines their compatibility, Klavitter said. "They dance, clap bills, go on their tippy-toes, do vocalizations," he said.

During this dance, "this compatability — sizing up fitness to know whether this particular mate can take care of a chick together," is determined, Klavitter said. "Ultimately they want to make sure their genetics are preserved."

Perhaps it’s something about Wisdom’s incredible feathers, her perfect wing tips, her coloration, he said. "It means she can find the right amount of squid by the fact that she has survived. … She’s attractive."

There’s no telling how old her current mate is, since he was first banded in December.

Wisdom laid an egg on or about Nov. 28, and after 65 days hatched a chick, the fifth in the last six years.

Klavitter says birds have a finite number of eggs, though they may have more than was thought and may remain reproductively active for longer than was thought.

Ann Bell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service visitor services manager at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which includes Midway, said, "She’s like a spring chicken. She looks like every other albatross. The only way we know she’s a grandma is the wedding band."

Bell is referring to Wisdom being banded, first in 1956 by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins when she was at least 5 years old, since she was hatching a chick then, too. When Robbins, now in his 90s, returned in 2001-02, he found Wisdom again and identified her by her band number, Z333.

He notified scientists he found a bird in her 50s, and they amazingly located her in 2006 among the 1.5 million albatrosses and placed a stainless-steel band on one leg and a bright red one on the other to make her easy to find.

Klavitter said aluminum banding, which lasts just 10 years, began in the 1930s and wasn’t replaced with stainless steel until the 1990s, so there are not a lot of records of longevity.

As for Wisdom, "she has a lot to tell us," Klavitter said. "She is a symbol of hope for her species."