The world's oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the approximate age of 74, reports quoting US biologists said.
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was spotted with the egg and a new partner last week at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, an island sanctuary located on the far northern end of the Hawaiian archipelago.
“She did it again!” the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the Pacific Region exclaimed on social media platform X.
The CNN quoted Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at wildlife refuge, as saying that he and his team were “optimistic that the egg will hatch,” and that Wisdom would be fit enough to raise another chick. “A special joy,” he called Wisdom’s achievement.
According to a report in the BBC, Wisdom was first identified and tagged in 1956 after laying an egg. Laysan albatrosses are not known to breed before the age of five.
USFWS estimates that the bird has produced up to 60 eggs and mothered as many as 30 chicks in her lifetime.
The USFWS said on X that Wisdom was with a new partner this year and that her previous partner Akeakamai had not been seen for several years.
The species generally mates for life but she is already thought to have outlived at least three mates.
Laysan albatrosses live between 12 and 40 years. Many die after mistakenly swallowing colorful plastic which they think is food in the sea.
Wisdom has intrigued biologists who are desperate to find out how she manages to live such a long life and still have babies, the CNN report said.
Midway Atoll is part of the Hawaiian archipelago but does not fall within the US state of Hawaii and is described as an unincorporated territory of the US.
The wildlife refuge is home to the largest colony of albatross in the world.