4 ms·

74 seems incredibly old! Is there a chance someone has been swapping the tags to mess with the researchers?!

by osrec 2y ago

londons_explore 2y ago
At 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 ago
    This bird would not have been the oldest known wild bird.
  - pvaldes 2y ago
    The 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.
RachelF 2y ago
Some bird species can live quite long, especially for their size, compared to mammals. 120 gram lories and parakeets can live to 30 years in captivity. They appear to keep breeding until they die. There are sulphur-crested cockatoos (a type of large Australian parrot) that are documented to have made it over 100 years.

74 seems incredibly old! Is there a chance someone has been swapping the tags to mess with the researchers?!

by osrec 2y ago

74 seems incredibly old! Is there a chance someone has been swapping the tags to mess with the researchers?!

At 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 ago
  This bird would not have been the oldest known wild bird.
- pvaldes 2y ago
  The 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.

RachelF 2y ago

Some bird species can live quite long, especially for their size, compared to mammals. 120 gram lories and parakeets can live to 30 years in captivity. They appear to keep breeding until they die. There are sulphur-crested cockatoos (a type of large Australian parrot) that are documented to have made it over 100 years.