US biologists say the world’s oldest wild bird laid eggs at an estimated age of 74.
Wisdom, the Laysan albatross, was filmed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean with her latest partner tending to the egg.
Members of the species typically live 12-40 years, but Wisdom was tagged in 1956 when she was five years old.
Her last offspring came out in 2021. She is thought to have had more than 30 cubs in her lifetime.
Wisdom said at USFWS X this year with a new partner and her former partner Akekamai has not been seen for several years.
This species usually mates for life but she is thought to have outlived at least three mates already.
John Plissner, a supervisory wildlife biologist at the refuge, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Wisdom Two to three million Laysan albatross travel to Midway to breed.
He said biologists don’t know of any birds close to his age, the oldest being 45.
“It’s really remarkable,” he said. “Wisdom seems to pique the interest of people around the world. We wait with bated breath every year for her return.”
He said that Wisdom still has the energy and instinct to raise another chick and that the hatching chance is 70-80%.
Albatross parents share incubation duties and, once the chicks hatch, share feeding duties.
Intelligence was first identified and tagged after egg laying in 1956. Laysan albatross are not known to reproduce before age five.
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 sanctuary is home to the largest colony of albatross in the world.
