A mother duck has been captured in a set of adorable pictures caring for no less than 76 ducklings – and despite the size of the brood, her feathers remain unruffled.

The remarkable images of the common mergansers were captured by Brent Cizek at Lake Bemidji, in Northern Minnesota, the photographer’s home state.

The 32-year-old told MailOnline Travel: ‘From what I've been told, this is a common practice among common mergansers.



‘Mergansers will dump their eggs into multiple nests, so when they incubate they have eggs from other mothers in the same nest.

‘However, they can only incubate up to 20 eggs. So while some of these chicks may be hers, it's not possible for all of them to be from her.



‘She likely picked them up from other mothers when the ducklings got separated and it's also possible that she is caring for all of the babies on the lake.

‘There is greater odds for survival if the brood is much larger.’

At first Mr Cizek counted 50 ducklings in tow, then on another trip to the lake he counted 76. In one picture he managed to capture 56 ducklings following the mother.

When he posted his images of them online they quickly went viral.



Twitter user Hannah J Waters commented: ‘Is there anything sweeter in the universe?

‘Adult ducks can’t tell which birds are theirs, and lost young birds that have already imprinted on their own mothers will instinctively start following another common merganser because she looks like mom.’

Gwendolyn G Bieschke wrote 'real men shoot ducks with cameras!' and Beverly Jones said 'this is just magnificent'.

User Holly Landau joined in, too, writing 'thank you for noticing something so awesome and sharing it with us'. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5995649/Adorable-images-Brent-Cizek-mother-duck-SEVENTY-SIX-ducklings-care.html

If this was in Nigeria .
Erosion will carry some of those ducklings.
Thief will carry some.
Motor will jam the mother duck and all the remaining ducklings will most likely die miserably from other natural or artificial disaster.
Nigeria my country![img]https://media1./images/e82c2cd09db0bf410917cda2ef22ffd4/tenor.gif?itemid=4986298[/img]

Some mothers are like this duck in nature...

They treat other kids just like it is theirs...

see as dem line up like say dem dae assembly ground... D ducks mama na mother of virtue

God is great .

This is so adorable

look at how orderly they are moving...more organize and civilize than Nigeria leaders...including buhari,fayoshe,Dino malaye,sarki..

Its a pity dat some human beings are supposed to be higher animals but behave and reason lower than dis mother duck

Ever8054:
look at how orderly they are moving...more organize and civilize than Nigeria leaders...including buhari,fayoshe,Dino malaye,sarki..

Behave!

i just wish some human mothers can learn from these animals...

Some mothers can't even lead two kids aright.


Thumbs up for her!!!

Mother Duck Buhari has a lot to learn here. Fulani ducklings shouldn't matter most to him all the time. What if Buhari comes back in next life as a middle beltan christian? Food for thought!!

Iya ni wura

Mother duck runs a motherless ducks home.
SINGLEHANDEDLY.

Really Adorable.
Na Only One Dude Did That?

Wow. This is beautiful

Nice one @ OP

Was thinking this was from Explorers again.

Amazing. Another way men can learn leadership and loyalty from nature. God is great. Nature has been teaching men since...Who is that fool that says there is no God?

Duck hatchlings can be this plenty? I mean how can a mother duck incubate this amount of eggs @ once

Is its name obasanjoress?

76 cha!

KingLennon:
Behave!

gerout....!!!!!

Joy of motherhood!

lovely
mothers love






log on to letsfarmnigeria..com and see pics and videos of real farm work going on

.
.

Nature is amazing. God is the greatest.

Make water snake catch dem first....the water snake will be like bring dem on.....they are welcom "someone pls help me with that Jide kosoko meme"

Ever8054:
look at how orderly they are moving...more organize and civilize than Nigeria leaders...including buhari,fayoshe,Dino malaye,sarki..

Seems You are a SOCIOLOGIST