Photo of Mama Merganser Duck and Créche of 76 Ducklings Going for a Swim on Minnesota Lake Is Viral (Watch Video)

Photo of a female duck with her 76 ducklings going for a swim in a lake is viral on the internet. Amateur wildlife photographer Brent Cizek captured the scene at Lake Bemidji in northern Minnesota. The video of the ducks released by National Geographic Wild shows the baby ducks being led by the mama duck in a neat line. With these pictures going viral, some interesting questions have raised by social media users. People looked curious to know where the mama duck got many of them and what will happen to the ducklings once they are full grown.

According to a report in Nat Geo, Steve Cordts, a waterfowl staff specialist with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources said, "The dozens of ducklings trailing this merganser hen follow her lead to find food, and she is responsible for keeping them well away from predators." He added saying, "But they are not all hers. She has acquired the ducklings from many broods on the lake to form the group, called a crèche. This phenomenon occurs in several other types of birds as well."

Check out Mama Merganser and her toddler army here!

Watch the video here:

Brent tweeted pictures of the birds saying, "I saw a couple Common Mergansers resting on the beach, followed by a Common Merganser mother who has her hands full with an adopted brood of 50+." A few weeks later when he returned to check on the female duck now dubbed as 'Mama Merganser', she had more ducklings to take care of. "MAMA MERGANSER! I was able to track down the now famous Lake Bemidji Common Merganser that has an adopted brood of over 76 babies!" he tweeted last week.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2018 11:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).