E37: Okay, but does age bring wisdom?
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Release Date: Aug 27, 2026A bird called Wisdom was banded on Midway Atoll in 1956 and is still laying eggs today, which makes her at least 75 and the oldest known wild bird on the planet. She has also outlived the man who banded her, and most of the scientists who tracked her since. Dr. Etienne Roubystudies long-lived seabirds at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU Boulder, working with data from the French sub-Antarctic islands where wandering albatross have been followed for more than half a century.
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In this episode:
What a fledgling albatross does for the first five years of its life, and why nobody really knows
The fishing gear change that pulled a colony back from the brink, and how long it took to see it working
Why a very good year for female albatross is a very bad year for the males
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All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
Snowy Albatross audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML42306
Black-browed Albatross audio contributed by Jan Hansen, ML650026815