![]() The standard theory is that it simply has to do with available food sources, predators, and the harsh environment they live in (often in extremely cold regions like Northern Alaska and the like). This actually happens in a semi-regular cycle of about three to four years and, to date, nobody knows exactly why. ![]() However, lemmings can literally go from massively overpopulated in a certain area to near extinction within a couple year period and then back to massively overpopulated very quickly. Lemmings actually prefer to be on their own, only getting together to mate when food is plentiful. The theory behind why they would commit this mass suicide, as explained by narrator Winston Hibler, is that they get worked up from the frenzy of running with all the other thousands of lemmings: “A kind of compulsion seizes each tiny rodent and, carried along by an unreasoning hysteria, each falls into step for a march that will take them to a strange destiny.” He then proceeds to explain how they are approaching the sea, which is actually just a river because Alberta is landlocked at which point, driven by their hysteria, they cast themselves into the sea. ![]() The next scene was of the dead lemmings floating in the water. Once they got all the shots they needed, they then used the turntable to launch the lemmings over a cliff into a river and filmed this in the same way, making it seem like a mass lemming suicide was taking place. They also filmed them crossing a little stream. They had the lemmings on a snow covered lazy-Susan style turntable and just filmed them as they ran. The film makers used close up shots to make it seem like there were thousands of lemmings migrating. In the wildlife documentary White Wilderness, a few dozen lemmings were imported to Alberta, Canada so that they could be filmed in their “natural” habitat. We are also partial to the name, World War IV.So when did this myth get started? Well, nobody knows exactly, but it was a 1958 documentary by Disney, which won an Academy Award, by the way, that appears to have popularized the myth. In fact, the word "lemming" comes from the Norwegian "lemmus" which means destruction.Īre there any up-and-coming death metal bands in our reader-base? Feel free to use the name. Lemmings can be fierce little buggers, bearing their teeth when approached and decimating entire sections of countryside of vegetation. They might look cute, but they do not have a reputation for cuddliness. They are often be so focused on moving forward in a frenzied rate, that they can plunge straight off of embankments, as seen in this video. Instead, overpopulation and density triggers a migration reaction in the little rodents, causing a frantic and single-minded migration across long distances in search of greener pastures. While they sometimes do fall to their deaths, they are not consciously committing suicide. One popular myth about lemmings is that they react to overpopulation by leaping off of cliffs to their death. ![]() Though the little rodents (Norway lemmings, Lemus lemus) have not yet begun swarming in a locust-like frenzy, they have been turning up all over Lapland, including drowned in the nets of salmon fishermen, clinging to the oar of a rower and attached to a woman's ankle as it bit her. Northern Finland is experiencing its largest lemming migration in 20 years, according to t his article in Helsingin Sanomat's "International Edition" (we never miss an issue!). ![]()
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