Lemmings don't really throw themselves off cliffs, do they?
by 
Daydreamer
ANSWERS: 2
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Lemming suicide is fiction. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These deaths are not deliberate "suicide" attempts, however, but accidental deaths resulting from the lemmings' venturing into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over dangerous ledges. In fact, when the competition for food, space, or mates becomes too intense, lemmings are much more likely to kill each other than to kill themselves. www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm When searching for an answer for this, a lot of information about Lemmings the computer game came up.....it brought back memories of frantically trying to build bridges, blockades and trampoline thingys etc in the attempt to save as many of the green-haired fuzzy creatures as possible.......I love that game! :-) www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/
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No, they don't, and in this case Disney has a lot to answer for. Lemmings do periodically go through population boom-and-crash cycles. Lemmings also occasionally fall off cliffs. Somehow Disney got hold of the wrong end of the stick on that, decided that they leapt off cliffs do their deaths during population booms; and because wild animals are notoriously uncooperative when it comes to being filmed doing things like that Disney staged it. For their 1958 movie White Wilderness they bought a bunch of lemmings trapped by kids elsewhere, filmed them slipping around on a giant snow-covered turntable, and then had several cameramen herd them over a cliff while they got filmed in their "dramatic plunge" from below. About 20 lemmings died in a river so that Disney could make their movie. Check out Snopes or Wiki http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wilderness or even the state of Alaska's Fish and Game website: http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&articles_id=56&issue_id=6
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