What do you think when you think of Lemmings? Most of you will probably think of the popular video game called Lemmings. I'm here to tell you that, unfortunately, lemmings are not little men with green hair and blue suits who will mindlessly walk off cliffs and explode themselves.

Lemmings are small rodents, found in Northern Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia , Siberia and other arctic countries. They're really small, only about the size of your index finger (or maybe a bit bigger for those of you with small fingers). They eat leaves and grass.

Uncovering the myth

Lemmings often have large population booms (a rapid growth in population) and then large crashes (rapid decrease) due to their large reproduction rate. There is a myth that the reason for this is that occasionally lemmings, once they have used up their food supply, will sacrifice themselves so that there is enough food for the rest of the group. The myth says that they will go on mass migrations and throw themselves off cliffs or into seas.

This is just a myth. Lemmings will not commit suicide in masses. Once the food is at a shortage lemmings will disperse to look for more food. Lemmings have poor eyesight so they will occasionally in these mass dispersal's fall off cliffs or mistake a large river for a small stream. They certainly do not commit mass suicide though.

Origins of this myth

The origin of this myth leads us back to the 1950s. In 1958, Disney released a film called White Wilderness. (Enter comment about the City Workers being old enough to remember that) In this film it depicted lemmings committing mass suicide by migrating and then all jumping off of a cliff. This would turn out to be completely fabricated.

In 1983, the Canadian Broadcasting Company investigated this film. It found that the production team for White Wilderness arrived in Alberta, Canada to shoot a scene, there were no lemmings there. So, it paid Inuit children from Manitoba 25 cents for every lemming they caught, and imported them to Alberta. Once they'd done this, using tricks involving camera angles and putting them on a moving turntable covered with snow, they made it look like the lemmings were migrating in masses. After this they took the lemmings to a cliff overlooking a stream which was made to look like the sea. The production crew then hid out of sight and pushed the lemmings off of the cliff, making them look like they were jumping off. This shot was followed by a shot of dead lemmings in the water.

It really is a shame but hopefully any thoughts of Lemmings mindlessly killing themselves are gone.

This is Cobd . . . Not yet gone

Author's Note: Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming, http://www.drbeetle.com/lemming.html, http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&articles_id=56&issue_id=6