LemmingFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the rodent. For other uses, see Lemming (disambiguation).

Lemmings

Lemmus lemmus

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Rodentia

Family: Cricetidae

Subfamily: Arvicolinae

Tribe: Lemmini*

Genera

Dicrostonyx

Eolagurus

Lagurus

Lemmus

Myopus

Synaptomys

 * Incomplete listing: see vole

Lemmings are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic, in tundra biomes. They are subniveal

animals, and together with voles and muskrats, they make up the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as

Microtinae), which forms part of the largest mammal radiation by far, the superfamily Muroidea, which also

includes rats, mice, hamsters, and gerbils.

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Description and habitat

2 Behavior

3 Misconceptions

4 Classification

5 References

6 External links

Description and habitat[edit]

Lemmings weigh from 30 to 110 g (1 to 4 oz) and are about 7 to 15 cm (3 to 6 in) long. They generally have

long, soft fur, and very short tails. They areherbivorous, feeding mostly on leaves and shoots, grasses,

and sedges in particular, but also on roots and bulbs. At times, they will eat grubs and larvae. Like other

rodents, their incisors grow continuously, allowing them to exist on much tougher forage than would normally

be possible.

Lemmings do not hibernate through the harsh northern winter. They remain active, finding food by burrowing

through the snow and using grasses clipped and stored in advance. They are solitary animals by nature,

meeting only to mate and then going their separate ways, but like all rodents, they have a high reproductive

rate and can breed rapidly when food is plentiful.

Behavior[edit]

The behavior of lemmings is much the same as that of many other rodents which have periodic population

booms and then disperse in all directions, seeking the food and shelter their natural habitats cannot provide.

The Norway lemming and brown lemming are two of the few vertebrates which reproduce so quickly that their

population fluctuations are chaotic,[1][2] rather than following linear growth to a carrying capacity or regular

oscillations. It is unknown why lemming populations fluctuate with such great variance roughly every four years,

before numbers drop to near extinction.[3] Lemming behavior and appearance are markedly different from many

other rodents, which are inconspicuously colored and try to conceal themselves from their predators.

Lemmings, on the contrary, are conspicuously colored, and behave aggressively towards predators and even

human observers. The lemming defense system is thought to be based on aposematism (warning display).[4]

For many years, the population of lemmings was believed to change with the population cycle, but now some

evidence suggests their predators' populations, particularly the stoat, may be more closely involved in changing

the lemming population.[5]

Misconceptions[edit]

Misconceptions about lemmings go back many centuries. In the 1530s, the geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg

proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather (also featured in the folklore of

the Inupiat/Yupik at Norton Sound), and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring.[6] This description

was contradicted by the natural historian Ole Worm, who accepted that lemmings could fall out of the sky, but

claimed they had been brought over by the wind rather than created by spontaneous generation. Worm first

published dissections of a lemming, which showed they are anatomically similar to most other rodents, and the

work of Carl Linnaeus proved they had a natural origin.[7][8]

When large numbers of lemmings migrate, some of them will inevitably drown while crossing rivers and lakes, like this one in

Norway.

Lemmings have become the subject of a widely popular misconception that they commit mass suicide when

they migrate. It is not a mass suicide, but the result of their migratory behavior. Driven by strong biological

urges, some species of lemmings may migrate in large groups when population density becomes too great.

Lemmings can swim and may choose to cross a body of water in search of a new habitat. In such cases, many

may drown if the body of water is so wide as to stretch their physical capability to the limit. This fact, combined

with the unexplained fluctuations in the population of Norwegian lemmings, gave rise to the misconception.[9]

The misconception of lemming "mass suicide" is long-standing and has been popularized by a number of

factors. It was well enough known to be mentioned in "The Marching Morons", a 1951 short story by Cyril M.

Kornbluth. In 1955, Disney Studio illustrator Carl Barks drew an Uncle Scroogeadventure comic with the title

"The Lemming with the Locket". This comic, which was inspired by a 1953 American Mercury article, showed

massive numbers of lemmings jumping over Norwegian cliffs.[10][11] Even more influential was the 1958 Disney

film White Wilderness, which won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, in which staged footage was

shown with lemmings jumping into certain death after faked scenes of mass migration.[12]A Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation documentary, Cruel Camera, found the lemmings used for White Wilderness were

flown from Hudson Bay toCalgary, Alberta, Canada, where they did not jump off the cliff, but were in fact

launched off the cliff using a turntable.[13]

This same myth was also used in the Apple Computer 1985 Super Bowl commercial "Lemmings" and the

popular 1991 video game Lemmings, in which the player must stop the lemmings from mindlessly marching

over cliffs or into traps. In a 2010 board game by GMT games, Leaping Lemmings, players must maneuver

lemmings across a board while avoiding hazards, and successfully launch them off a cliff. The 1994 short

film "Lemming Aid" portrayed a group of misfits attempting to save lemmings from mass suicide, (a guinea

pig was used as a substitute for a lemming). American cartoonist Stephan Pastis's popular comic strip Pearls

Before Swine had a few strips starring four lemmings in a humorous gossip and confessions just before they

are about to jump over a cliff.

Because of their association with this odd behavior, lemming "suicide" is a frequently used metaphor in

reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal

consequences. This metaphor is seen many times in popular culture, such as in the video game Lemmings,

and in episodes of Red Dwarf and Adult Swim's show Robot Chicken. In the eighth episode of season 1 of

Showtime's The Borgias, the Pope's second son Juan refers to the college of cardinals as lemmings when they

flee the Vatican in anticipation of an impending French invasion. The Blink 182 song Lemmings also uses this

metaphor, as does the unrelated song of the same name by English progressive rock band Van der Graaf

Generator(from their 1971 album Pawn Hearts), and the 1973 stage show National Lampoon's

Lemmings starring John Belushi and mocking post-Woodstock groupthink.[14]

Classification[edit]

Order Rodentia

Superfamily Muroidea

Family Cricetidae

Subfamily Arvicolinae: voles, lemmings, and related species

Tribe Lemmini

Dicrostonyx

Northern collared lemming  (D. groenlandicus)

Ungava collared lemming  (D. hudsonius)

Victoria collared lemming  (D. kilangmiutak)

Nelson's collared lemming  (D. nelsoni) or St. Lawrence Island collared lemming

(D. exsul)

Ogilvie Mountains collared lemming  (D. nunatakensis)

Richardson's collared lemming  (D. richardsoni)

Bering collared lemming  (D. rubricatus)

Arctic lemming  (D. torquatus)

Unalaska collared lemming  (D. unalascensis)

Wrangel lemming  (D. vinogradovi)

Lemmus

Amur lemming  (L. amurensis)

Norway lemming  (L. lemmus)

Siberian brown lemming  (L. sibiricus)

North American brown lemming  (L. trimucronatus)

Wrangel Island lemming  (L. portenkoi)

Myopus

Wood lemming  (M. schisticolor)

Synaptomys

Northern bog lemming  (S. borealis)

Southern bog lemming  (S. cooperi)

Tribe Arvicolini: over 120 species

Eolagurus

Yellow steppe lemming  (E. luteus)

Przewalski's steppe lemming  (E. przewalskii)

Lagurus

Steppe lemming  (L. lagurus)

Over 100 other species not known as lemmings

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Peter Turchin (2003). Complex Population Dynamics: A Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis.

Princeton University Press. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-691-09021-4.

2. Jump up^ (Turchin & Ellner, 1997)

3. Jump up^ Hinterland Who's Who - Lemmings

4. Jump up^ Malte Anderson, “Lemmus lemmus: A possible case of aposematic coloration and behavior”

Journal of Mammalogy, 57, no 3, Aug, 1976:461 - 469

5. Jump up^ Predators drive the lemming cycle in Greenland

6. Jump up^ ABC.net.au - Lemmings Suicide Myth

7. Jump up^ Bondeson, Jan (1999). The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural

History. Cornell University Press. pp. 256–257. ISBN 978-0-8014-3609-3. Retrieved 2009-01-11.

8. Jump up^ Museum Wormianum seu historia rerum rariorum Ole Worm (1655)

9. Jump up^ Lemming Suicide Myth Disney Film Faked Bogus Behavior

10. Jump up^ Lederer, Muriel. "Return of the Pied Piper". The American Mercury, Dec. 1953, pp. 33–4.

11. Jump up^ Blum, Geoffrey. 1996. "One Billion of Something", in: Uncle Scrooge Adventures by Carl Barks,

#9.

12. Jump up^ snopes.com: White Wilderness Lemmings Suicide

13. Jump up^ Cruel Camera Time slice: 14:01–15:27

14. Jump up^ Covach, John (2002). "Stylistic Competencies, Musical Satire, and 'This is Spinal Tap'". In

Marvin, Elizabeth West; Hermann, Richardbecame. Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945: Essays

and Analytic Studies. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. p. 403, note 16.ISBN 1-58046-096-

8. OCLC 488555439. Retrieved June 17, 2013.