This may entail crossing rivers and streams, and invariably some drown. Lemmings will also migrate when their populations are high. When lemmings are super-abundant, there will be carnage: predators take advantage of the easy food source, as shown dramatically with the owl nest lined with 70 lemmings. As Smith writes, lemmings do have population fluctuations. How did such a fantastical story originate?Īs with many myths and tall tales, it is perhaps loosely rooted in real events. They may well be behind the snowy owl invasion occurring in the eastern United States, and lemming populations affect other wildlife from foxes to geese.īut of the many amazing lemming facts Smith described, he didn’t include lemmings leaping off cliffs. Ornithologist Joe Smith’s popular blog on Cool Green Science this week focused on how lemmings shape nearly every aspect of arctic habitats. It’s an enduring image: thousands of lemmings, mindlessly following each other over the cliff to their deaths.
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