[Birdbycatch] LAAL record - 51 years at Midway Atoll

[Elizabeth Ann Mitchell]

This came in from Kim Rivera: 

Subject: [Fwd: Albatross Record]

fyi; some of you may have seen this already, thought it may be of
interest to you!
Kim

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Albatross Record
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 09:53:03 -0400
From: "Melanie J Steinkamp" <melanie_steinkamp@usgs.gov>
To: kim.rivera@noaa.gov, maura_naughton@fws.gov,
Beth_Flint@fws.gov,Craig.Johnson@noaa.gov

I thought you all might enjoy this information (Maura - you were there,
yes?) It came out of our monthly "Patuxent Highlights."


Research

Age Record for Laysan Albatross:  My news of the week is that while
looking
up band numbers of albatrosses  that I had recaptured on Midway Atoll in
February, I discovered that one  of them was a Laysan Albatross I had
initially banded in 1956.  This bird  was incubating an egg when I
banded
it, indicating that it was at least  five years old at the time.  I had
replaced the worn band in 1962, and  other colleagues had replaced it
again
in 1985 and 1993.  When I gave this  bird its 5th sequential band in
February 2002 it was brooding a healthy  chick at the age of at least 51
years.  This breaks the longevity record  for North American birds in
the
wild, the previous record being for this  same species at the age of 42
years 5 months.
Contact:  Chandler S. Robbins  301-497-5641



Melanie J Steinkamp
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
12100 Beech Forest Road
Laurel, Maryland 20708-4038 USA

email: melanie_steinkamp@usgs.gov
Home page: www.pwrc.usgs.gov
tel 301.497.5753  fax 301.497.5784