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title: "Who is the world's oldest albatross?  Wisdom is now catching up with the late Grandma!  UPDATED"
---

# Who is the world's oldest albatross?  Wisdom is now catching up with the late Grandma!  UPDATED

On 3 January 2010 the world's oldest known Laysan Albatross *Phoebetria immutabilis*, a banded female named "Wisdom", was sighted for the first time this breeding season on [Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve](http://www.fws.gov/midway/) in the USA's North-western Hawaiian Islands ([click here](http://www.fws.gov/midway/whatsnew.html) for story).

  

 Wisdom was observed in her usual location incubating an egg and is at least 59 years old .  She was banded as a breeding adult incubating an egg at the same locality on Midway by Chandler Robbins of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, USA in December 1956.  Robbins estimated that the bird was a minimum of five years old at the time.  Last year Wisdom and her mate successfully fledged a chick.   
 ![laysan_albatross_wisdom_midway_by_usfws](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/laysan_albatross_wisdom_midway_by_usfws.jpg "The oldest known Laysan Albatross: ")

  The oldest known Laysan Albatross: "Wisdom" incubating on Midway.  She carries a red colour band (visible in the picture) with the number Z 333 that was fitted in 2006.  The original worn metal band was replaced in February 2002 by Chan Robbins.  Photograph by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

   

  The oldest known albatross in the world appears to have been a banded Northern Royal Albatross *Diomedea sanfordi* which bred for many years at [Taiaroa Head](http://www.albatross.org.nz/index.html) 

  on the Otago Peninsula of South Island, New Zealand and was named "Grandma" ([click here](http://moxostore.com/product/Grandma-The-Oldest-Albatross-DVD.html) for information on the DVD on her life).  She reached a banded age of 51.5 years and an actual age of at least  60 years, regularly raising chicks until the year she disappeared.

  

 Midway forms part of the [Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument](http://www.fws.gov/midway/monument.html), which has now been submitted for World Heritage status, to be considered later this year ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/2009-news-archive/north-pacific-albatross-breeding-sites-head-for-world-heritage-status)).

  

 Read about Wisdom's 2009 breeding session at   [http://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/digitaljournal/albatrossjournal.html](http://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/digitaljournal/albatrossjournal.html).  Scroll to: "Wisdom is Back! -- February 11, 2009".

  

 [Click here](https://www.acap.aq/2009-news-archive/usa-designates-new-marine-protected-areas-in-the-pacific-updated) for an earlier news story on this web site.

  

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 March 2010*