Longevity records for the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster and Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes

Longevity records for seabirds are vital to understanding population demography but are often limited due to the relatively short duration of many monitoring programs. Here, we present new longevity records for two seabird species: 32.2 years (Queensland, Australia) for the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster and 33.9 years (New Zealand) for the Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes, alongside existing longevity data.

While these new records represent the oldest known birds to date, we suggest that they reflect typical adult lifespans of these species, i.e., 25-30 years, and reinforce the need for ongoing monitoring efforts.