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Oldest known wild bird lays egg at 74
- Qem 2y agoAwesome. If they start breeding at 5, and she's already nearly 75, then potentially she lived to see a (grand)^13-child of herself being hatched. And her (grand)^13-child will still see a (grand)^12-uncle/aunt hatch.
- 867-5309 2y agounexpected exponent
- oneeyedpigeon 2y agoYeah, I would've expected something like /(great-){13}grandchild/, tbh...
- dmd 2y agoin bagging area
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hammock 2y agoSome other animals | Animal | Lifespan | Breeding Frequency | Potential Generations They Can Witness| |---------------|-------------------|----------------------------|---------------------------------------| | Turtles | Over 100 years | Every few years | 10-20 generations | | Whales | Over 200 years | Every 2-5 years | 20-30 generations | | Koi Fish | Over 200 years | Multiple times a year | 30-50 generations | | Elephants | 60-70 years | Every 4-5 years | 10-15 generations | Forget about trees, which breed annually and you can find 10-100+ generations around a mother tree; fungi (similar); or bacteria, which can witness 1000+ generations in its lifetime
- Rendello 2y agoDefine "witness" ;)
- xerox13ster 2y agoTo gain an understanding of the implicit definition of his use of this word, I suggest you go read some literature. There exist a whole host of literature that are witness to a broad and eclectic vernacular. :)
- TacticalCoder 2y agoAnd Jonathan the tortoise is believed to be the oldest land animal at 192 years old [1] When I was a kid (I'm 51 y/o now) I remember learning that there were still one or two tortoise alive that were born before the... French revolution (1789). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_(tortoise) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_(tortoise)
- NooneAtAll3 2y agomeanwhile, the immortal jellyfish:
- vouaobrasil 2y agoAlbatrosses are beautiful creatures. They mate for life. Sadly, many are caught in long-line fishing -- just another example of how we destroy everything that is beautiful in the world. "A conservative calculation of the number of albatrosses killed annually on Japanese longlines in southern oceans in 44 000." [1] [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0006320791900314 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/000632...
- robin_reala 2y agoI’ve basically stopped eating fish now: most fish is mass-hunted from unsustainable populations, farmed fish has horrible problems with disease, and there’s huge collatoral damage against other sea-based life.
- nativeit 2y agoIt’s also worth noting that the seafood aisle at the grocery store is essentially entirely the product of slave labor, at least at some point along the supply chain.
- mistercheph 2y agomaybe if you're shopping at megafood inc., I know plenty of professional commercial fishermen and this is far from true, go to a fishmonger and ask him questions about where the fish comes from!
- ornornor 2y agoTo that point, see the « outlaw ocean » book by Ian Urbina: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlaw_Ocean https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlaw_Ocean
- kibwen 2y agoEven if you're not into saving the environment, the oceans are absolutely disgusting by this point and I wouldn't trust anything fished out of it.
- dzonga 2y agothen you wonder how old dinosaurs got ?
- nativeit 2y agoIsn’t the distinction sort of moot at this point? I seem to remember things setting into a “birds = dinosaurs” paradigm, although I am almost certainly oversimplifying things.
- Swizec 2y ago> Isn’t the distinction sort of moot at this point? I seem to remember things setting into a “birds = dinosaurs” paradigm, although I am almost certainly oversimplifying things. Birds are dinosaurs. Specifically they’re the avian branch of the theropods. Distinction has to do with hip bone structure – for lizards the hip joint goes out sideways, for dinosaurs and birds it goes down (iirc). Then dinosaurs have that big bone between their legs whereas for birds it developed into a keel-bone I believe. We know dinosaurs had to have been sortof-birds because for a lizard to reach that size it would’ve had to live hundreds of years. Whereas birds have a period of rapid growth when young, which enables them to reach near full adult size in a single breeding season. Basically: All birds are dinosaurs but not all dinosaurs are birds.
- tokai 2y agodzonga didn't bring up any distinction. On the contrary. An old bird breeding naturally raises questions about the lifespans of non-avian dinosaurs, because they are related.
- rsynnott 2y agoBirds are a subset of dinosaurs; not all dinosaurs were birds, though all current dinosaurs are birds.
- zie 2y agoI thought crocodiles counted? They are related to birds, but clearly are not birds.
- osrec 2y ago74 seems incredibly old! Is there a chance someone has been swapping the tags to mess with the researchers?!
- londons_explore 2y agoAt least recently, there are enough photos of this bird that any tag-swapping would have been noticed. Might not be true back in the 50's/60's/70's though, although back then there would be far less reason to do any swapping.
- trompetenaccoun 2y ago>although back then there would be far less reason to do any swapping Why?
- marcellus23 2y agoThis bird would not have been the oldest known wild bird.
- pvaldes 2y agoThe bird was less famous then. Is not probable, but not impossible In theory a soldier or fishermen could have accidentally killed the first bird and reassign the tag at the sea, but I think that we could safely discard that because in that case, the female would have changed its nest location suddenly that year. Even more strange, would have changed its partner also. To re-tag a bird that also occupy the same nest as the first bird, we would need typically to do it in the nest area. That would need a scientist (typically as the number of people visiting those remote places is scarce), and one with a known name. A daughter of the bird could have occupied the empty nest spot. But this is all speculation, of course. Marks on the bird could provide the required info. With mammals with spots is much easier, each animal has a different pattern. With Albatross, the valid patterns could be on the face leg scales or in some scars. After death the bones could be read also for confirm the age, but DNA analysis should be the weapon of choice in this cases.
- 2y ago
- slicktux 2y agoI love these specific species of Albatross! So beautiful! They remind me of an the western gull; except bigger and not as loud.
- travisgriggs 2y agoWhen humans reproduce at higher ages, the odds of issues and abnormalities increase. Does the same happen with birds?
- sriacha 2y agoThat's a good question. A quick scan of the literature suggests that in some birds the answer is no. I believe this is thought to be due to the evolutionary constraints of flying. "Some seabird species exhibit extremely slow age-related declines in both survival and reproductive output, and even increase reproductive success as they get older. Slow avian senescence is thought to be coupled evolutionarily with delayed maturity and low annual fecundity. " [1] "Long-term population studies of wild seabirds (e.g. terns, gulls and albatrosses) suggest that these species show little or no decline in reproductive output, even when increasing mortality rates suggest the occurrence of senescence in other systems." [2] [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531556500002473 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S05315... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531556503001037 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S05315...
- amatecha 2y ago74! Wowzers. I know someone who has a ~45 year old Goffin cockatoo, which has now survived multiple owners' passing! Who would have thought you need to consider a "legacy plan" for a pet bird?! haha As a random aside, we play various pop/electronic music for the bird and she very happily/avidly dances to it. :)
- kulahan 2y agoI was shocked to read about the maximum lifespans for some birds in captivity. It seems like they’re all built for extremely long lives! Birds that live to 80 in captivity are not uncommon at all. Really threw me for a loop
- pvaldes 2y agoHope they give this poor Goffin a well deserved partner after all this time. Disco music definitely can help with that first date