The world's oldest known wild bird, an albatross (信天翁) named Wisdom, has returned to her nesting place in the Midway Atoll. The 68yearold bird has just laid another egg.
The Midway Atoll is made of two small islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is an important place for albatrosses, and an important place for scientists who want to study them. One of the ways scientists can study birds is by banding (给……戴环志) them. Putting a small numbered band on the leg of a bird, helps scientists tell which bird is which. This makes it easier to keep track of what happens among the birds. Over 250,000 albatrosses have been banded on Midway since 1936.
Wisdom was first banded by scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956, along with thousands of other albatrosses. At the time, she was at least 5 years old. Wisdom carried Robbins' band around the world for many years. Then, surprisingly, the scientist and the bird were reunited in 2002, when Robbins returned to Midway to research albatrosses again. He rebanded Wisdom and, checking the band records, discovered he had been the first one to put a band on her —46 years before.
Wisdom was using the same nesting place. Adult albatrosses spend a lot of their lives flying over the sea, resting from time to time on the water to eat. But they return to the same nesting place every year. When albatrosses choose a partner (配偶), they remain partners for life. But Wisdom has been alive so long that she has had a few partners.
Wisdom is not just old, she is also active. Because it takes so much time and energy for parent albatrosses to raise a chick—it takes about seven months until it can fly—many albatrosses lay eggs every other year. But Wisdom has laid an egg every single year since 2006. Because Wisdom has been laying eggs for so long, she could have her chicks and the chicks of her chicks all around her. There may soon be one more to add to the list.
