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| Photographed in England |
270 MUTE SWAN Cygnus olor
Britain (5)
A native to much of Europe and Asia,and infrequent visitor to northern Africa; introduced to North America, Australia and southern Africa. 125-170 cm. Called 'mute' as not as noisy as other swans. The total native population of swans is about 500,000, of these 350,000 are in the former Soviet Union, 22,000 in the UK. For many centuries in Britain swans were breed for food, the owners would mark or brand the beak or feet and these marks were registered with the crown. A Royal Swanherder was appointed and any birds not branded were considered property of the crown.
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