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For her many years evading the lethal hazards of being an albatross—dangerous tsunamis and sharks, to name a few—on top of newer threats posed by humans, such as warming seas due to climate change, plastic pollution, and fishing lines, she was given the name Wisdom. Suryan isn’t the only one captivated by albatross—people from more than 190 countries tuned into the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s AlbatrossCam on Kauai, which was active between 2014 and 2018. Every fall, when Laysan albatross return to Midway after months at sea to begin their next breeding season, the skies above the islands go from relatively empty to full of birds crisscrossing over turquoise lagoons, their long, slender wings outstretched. To better manage the threats and conserve the species for the long-term, scientists need more data on Laysan albatross and their behaviors.
Pollution is also a problem; sharp pieces of plastic, tons of which end up in the Pacific each year, can perforate a bird’s gut and kill it. ( Read how nearly every seabird on Earth is eating plastic.) But there’s still much about Wisdom and her species that scientists don’t know, starting with the obvious question: How long can she live? Kapa'a, HawaiiShe could be any of a million Laysan albatross returning each fall to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, a group of three tiny islands formed from coral reefs in the North Pacific. Here, a thousand miles north of Honolulu, scores of brilliant white seabirds dot the islands’ exposed fields, each sitting atop a single, soda can–size egg. Both males and females sport the same charcoal-smudged eyes and chocolate-brown wings, which can span six and a half feet.Even so, it’s still unknown what other effects plastic might have on Laysan albatross, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists as near-threatened by extinction, experts say. As an international sensation, Wisdom is also the perfect candidate for her own webcam. Alas, Plissner says the internet at Midway is horribly slow. The next best thing would be a motion-activated camera that can be programmed to take a still picture or a short video every 15 minutes or so.
Her fame has drawn attention to the perils facing seabirds and Laysan albatross in particular, says Beth Flint, a Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist in Honolulu. ( Learn about the global decline in seabirds.) Wisdom has also outlived several mates. Her personality, Plissner says, is fairly low-key, just what you’d expect of an experienced mom who’s laid upward of 40 eggs in her lifetime. ( See National Geographic's pictures of animal mothers and babies.)She’s a bird with a life span comparable to a human,” Flint says. “I think her greatest contribution is the interest she stimulates in folks. She’s also drawing more people into the sciences.” Low-key mom The seabirds are easy to study when they’re on land—they’re big, nest on the ground, and don’t hide. But they’re most at home at sea, far from the probing eyes of researchers.
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