These enormous birds can live for 50 years and have the world's longest wingspan (3 meters on average).
Wandering albatrosses, which can be seen gliding above the southern Indian and Antarctic Oceans, typically mate for life and have young every two years with the same partner.
The prospective parents begin one of the longest incubation periods among birds after the female lays her single egg.
As their mate goes to sea to feed, they alternate taking turns incubating for the next 78 days.
Longest-winged birds go easy on older partners
The average length of these feeding excursions is 12 days, during which the nest-bound parent is obligated to remain in place without food. The longer their partner is gone, the more detrimental effects this can have on their physical health, as per ScienceDaily.
Researchers examined information from 71 pairs of birds that were nesting in the remote Crozet Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean for their study that was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
The team was able to calculate how much time the wandering albatrosses spent at sea thanks to information gathered from tiny sensors attached to their legs.
According to this, birds that mated with older partners made fewer feeding excursions and arrived back at the nest earlier than those that did so with younger partners.
The reason for this, according to the researchers, maybe that the birds are able to judge how long their partner can go without food.
Older birds may find it difficult to withstand the strain of a protracted fast, so their partners decide to release them earlier. Both parents, who depend on one another to raise their children, stand to gain from this in the end.
Finn McCully, a Ph.D. student in the university's School of Environmental Sciences and the paper's lead author, said: "On paper, this behavior looks very caring: one parent sacrifices feeding time to help protect the other.
In reality, this behavior benefits both parents. Albatrosses cannot be single parents; the conditions are too harsh.
Although earlier studies have shown that wandering albatrosses alter their own foraging habits as they age, this is the first study to hypothesize that the age of their partner may also be significant.
Since 1966, this population's roving albatrosses have been the subject of active research.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified this species as "vulnerable" in the 1970s due to threats, particularly the risk of being caught in fishing gear, which caused a sharp decline in their population.
Read more: Invasive Mouse Threatens Albatross Population
Threats of wandering albatross
Between June and September, the Wandering Albatross travels through Australian waters that stretch from Fremantle, Western Australia, across the southern ocean, and to the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, as per the Office of Environment and Heritage of NSW
The entire coast of New South Wales has had reports of it. Birds occasionally travel the southern oceans and frequently follow fishing boats for several days.
Due to their mobility, members of this species frequently come into contact with longline fishing boats from which they take the bait.
They frequently swallow hooks and drown or suffer injuries after being released; an estimated 9,500 people worldwide per year are killed by longline fishing.
Additionally, wandering albatross is shot to provide bait or to stop them from stealing bait from dropline fisheries.
An increased number of Subantarctic Skuas (birds) and human disturbance are likely to have a negative impact on breeding success and/or nest site selection.
Risks to this species may also include ingesting plastics and hooks and regurgitating them to chicks, becoming entangled in marine debris, and building up chemical contaminants.
Related article: Albatross and Petrels: Intentionally Killed and Mutilated by Fishermen in Southwestern Atlantic