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Lemmings are small animals that resemble mice. They eat plants and berries and provide a staple source of food for animals and birds. Lemming population numbers determine how their predators survive and reproduce in the food web cycle.
Diet
Lemmings live in the Arctic tundra and in Scandinavian countries. In the summer, lemmings eat tender shoots of grasses, roots and berries. During the winter, they eat bark, willow and birch twigs. They also are known to be cannibalistic when the food supply is scarce.
Prey
Animals including weasels, arctic foxes and wolves eat lemmings. Birds including snowy and short-eared owls depend on lemmings for food.
Birth Rates
Female lemmings give birth to as many as eight babies every five weeks. Lemmings have litters before they are fully grown.
Population Decreases
The lemming population decreases every three or four years. When there are fewer lemmings, there is less food for predators and they have smaller litters.
Population Fluctuations
Scandinavian lemmings migrate in huge groups when food is scarce, and if they come to a river or ocean they will swim endlessly, searching for land. Stories about lemmings jumping over cliffs in mass suicides are a myth.
Source:
Arctic Studies Center: Lemming
Alaska Department of Fish and Game: Lemmings
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