---
title: "Life begins at 40?  Banding recaptures show that the Waved Albatross can live for four decades"
---

# Life begins at 40?  Banding recaptures show that the Waved Albatross can live for four decades

Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui (Department of Sciences, [Charles Darwin Foundation](http://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/), Puerto Ayora, Galápagos, Ecuador) and colleagues have published a short communication in the open-access journal *[Marine Ornithology](http://www.marineornithology.org)* on the longevity of Waved Albatross *Phoebastria irrorata*based on recaptures of banded birds.

 Of 296 recaptured adults on [Española Island](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1353-acap-breeding-sites-no-22-isla-espanola-galapagos-islands-home-of-the-waved-albatross?highlight=WyJlc3Bhbm9sYSIsImVzcGFcdTAwZjFvbGEncyJd), Galápagos in 2015 four banded as chicks, and thus of known age, were from 37.7 to 40.8 years old.

 ![Waved Albatross incubating by Kate Huyvaert](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/W/Waved/Waved_Albatross_incubating_by_Kate_Huyvaert.jpg)

 Waved Albatross with a hatching egg, photograph by Kathryn Huyvaert 

 **Reference:**

 Jiménez-Uzcátegui, G., Harris, M.P., Sevilla, C.R. & Huyvaert, K.P. 2016.  Longevity records for the Waved Albatross *Phoebastria irrorata.  [Marine Ornithology](http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/44_2/44_2_133-134.pdf)*[44: 133-134](http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/44_2/44_2_133-134.pdf).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 June 2016*