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Parenting can be tough, even for the young and energetic, but one elderly albatross is about to go through it all again – at the advanced (and apparently record-breaking) age of 74. Wisdom, the Leysan albatross, is one of millions of enormous seabirds that return to Midway Atoll near Hawaii each year to nest.
Wildlife experts say she has done this for decades with the same partner – the birds are known to be monogamous – and has laid more than 50 eggs in her lifetime. But her partner hasn't been seen in years, and Wisdom has recently started flirting with other males.
"We're optimistic that the egg will hatch," said Jonathan Plissner, a supervisory biologist at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Photos and video provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service show the proud parents-to-be apparently chatting with their egg before the male sits on it.
Wisedom was identified and tagged when she laid her first egg at the refuge in 1956, when she would have been at least five years old - the point at which Leysan albatrosses reach sexual maturity. That means Wisdom will be at least 74 years old at the end of the month, and could be a few more years old, making her the world's oldest known wild bird.
Laysan albatrosses can have wingspans of up to 80 inches (203 centimeters) and travel 930 miles (1500 kilometers) to forage. The average lifespan of birds varies greatly depending on the species. Small birds often live only two or three years, while seabirds, including albatrosses and penguins, sometimes live to be 40 or 50. Parrots, alone among birds, can outlive humans, and one cockatoo is said to live well past 100 years.
There are more than a dozen species of albatross, which are found in the southern hemisphere, as well as in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Birds have long featured in stories about life at sea, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which a sailor brings misfortune to his ship by killing one of the birds, whose corpse is then hung around his neck.
