At 70, she is not a grandmother, but a mother.
“Wisdom,” a female Laysan albatross with record longevity, laid an egg last November on a patch of land in the Pacific Ocean.
It hatched on February 1, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) reported.
"Wisdom laid her egg in the last days of November," the USFWS wrote in its statement.
“Soon after, Wisdom returned to the sea to feed and her mate Akeakamai took over the incubation duties.
Albatross parents share the incubation duties and once the chicks hatch, share the feeding duties.
"The chick should take flight in a year, specify the specialists.
30 to 36 chicks laid by Wisdom
While albatrosses normally mate only once, researchers believe Wisdom has had multiple mates.
Akeakamai has been his companion since 2012.
🚨Cute baby alert!
Wisdom's chick has hatched !!!
🐣😍
Wisdom, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) and world's oldest known, banded wild bird is at least 70 years old.
Biologists estimate she has had at least 30-36 chicks.
https://t.co/cjM8X2clme
📸-Jon Brack / Friends of Midway Atoll NWR pic.twitter.com/voK0kO27ed
- USFWS Pacific Region (@USFWSPacific) February 5, 2021
Laysan albatrosses typically only live 12 to 40 years, the BBC says.
But Wisdom was first identified by researchers in 1956. The USFWS believes she has had at least 30 to 36 chicks in her lifetime.
Albatrosses only hatch one egg every few years.
The Midway Atoll Wildlife Sanctuary is home to the world's largest colony of albatrosses, and in total, more than three million birds inhabit the sanctuary and memorial.
