A Wisconsin trumpeter swan family photographed this summer may just have set an unofficial record for biggest swan family ever.
Trumpeter swans typically lay five to nine eggs each spring, but this brood, photographed in the Town of Minong in Washburn County, had 10 cygnets, or chicks.
While there is no Guiness Book of World Records entry for biggest swan family, this is the largest brood anyone can recall seeing.
The photograph, taken by Larry Radzak, made its way to Carrol Henderson, the now-retired biologist who led the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' trumpeter swan recovery. He in turn passed it on to Wisconsin DNR avian ecologist Sumner Matteson, who steered Wisconsin's successful trumpeter swan recovery program starting in the late 1980s.
Record or not, swan enthusiasts note that it's a great sign of the success of Wisconsin's efforts to recover this once-endangered species and of the quality, diversity and abundance of food provided by wetlands that the DNR and other partners and individuals work hard to protect.
