Why do lemmings run into the sea?

Question

And why aren't they extinct? The lemming is a small animal, about the size of a rat. The lemming is a strange animal with a very strange custom. The lemming, every few years, gathers together with a great many other lemmings, and they all march together- to the sea. The lemming and all the other lemmings march shoulder to shoulder and when they reach the sea they do a very strange thing: They jump in and drown.

Answer 1

Actually no, they don't. We can thank Disney for that myth.

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.

Disney's White Wilderness was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is not a native habitat for lemmings and has no outlet to the sea. Lemmings were imported for use in the film, purchased from Inuit children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. White Wilderness does not depict an actual lemming migration — at no time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.

Nine different photographers spent three years shooting and assembling footage for the various segments that comprise White Wilderness. It is not known whether Disney approved or knew about the activities of James R. Simon, the principal photographer for the lemmings sequence.

Nature documentaries are notoriously difficult to film, as wild animals are not terribly cooperative. Many nature shows and films of this era — including Disney's "True-Life Adventure" movies and TV's Wild Kingdom — staged events to capture exciting footage for their audiences. The sight of a few lemmings mistaking a lake or ocean for a stream and drowning after swimming out too far, or being pushed over a cliff during the frenzied rush of migration, has become the basis of a widespread belief that lemmings commit suicide en masse when their numbers grow too large.

Answer 2

Like Lemmings To The Sea

Answer 3

1. population control 2. or the lemmings make a mass sacrifice to the lemming sea god neptune in order to appease him and generate life for the future lemming survival. 3 there srewed up in the head 4. maybe they like to swim but get to cold in the water that the freeze up and drowned 5. the sea call the lemming home 6. the lord works in mysterious ways.

Answer 4

Lemmings aren't trying to run into the sea. They are trying to get away from the other lemmings. Sometimes their path takes them into the water and some of them drown. It's not like a mass suicide.

Answer 5

The actual reason for their 'suicide' deaths is because lemmings have notoriously poor eyesight and cannot distinguish a small river, which they can easily cross, from a fjord, in which they will almost surely drown.

Answer 6

you're full of sh*t, they don't do this. The Lemming is the video game character that will walk to its own death unles you do something to stop it by using other Lemmings. Duh!

Answer 7

its a myth

lemmings do not run into the sea

Answer 8

inbuilt population control mechanism

Answer 9

To swim to the other side.

Answer 10

I heard that this is total doo-doo.