what are those really dumb animals that spontaneously run off of cliffs?
2007-01-10 13:55:38 · 14 answers · asked by Adam 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
wil-e-coyote
2007-01-10 13:59:40 · answer #1 · answered by BULL 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They're called lemmings, but this is actually a cruel stereotype. The cause has been blamed on behavior, saying that during migrations, they try to ford rivers, but drown after overexertion; or that competition is too fierce, and the lemmings kill one another by pushing each other off cliffs. The Disney movie White Wilderness actually made lemmings jump off a cliff to document their suicidal behavior. This suicidal myth is debunked by the fact that most lemmings live too far from the sea to be possible.
Interestingly enough, medieval people used to believe that lemmings were spontaneously generated by conditions in the air.
2007-01-10 22:09:10 · answer #2 · answered by bibliomaniac15 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i know you're talking about lemmings, but they don't "spontaneously" run off cliffs. every few years a local population gets too big for the local area. so the colony migrates to a new area. they can easily swim across rivers, and probably lakes as well. but sometimes they come to the sea and make a judgment error, swimming until they drown. this myth is the fault of Disney. back in the day, Disney wanted to make nature films. they thought lemmings would make a good story. so the imported lemmings. the wrong kind, the kind that doesn't migrate. not wishing to let their idiocy (and the facts) get in the way of a good story (that's their business y'know), they encouraged the lemmings to leap off a cliff into the sea in an apparent suicide attempt. their method of encouragement? a flame thrower.
2007-01-10 22:07:08 · answer #3 · answered by mornington observer 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Supposedly lemmings.
In reality, lemmings don't spontaneously run off cliffs. This was a Disney presentation.
2007-01-10 22:22:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you mean lemmings. Unfortunately for the myth, they don't jump off cliffs. When Walt Disney filmed them doing it sixty years or so ago, the lemmings wouldn't jump off the cliff so Disney's crew threw them off. The film shows them in the air and falling on the ground at the bottom, it doesn't show how they got in the air.
2007-01-10 22:00:38 · answer #5 · answered by tentofield 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lemmings
2007-01-10 22:03:21 · answer #6 · answered by Lizzy-tish 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They are called Lemings, but it is not true that they spontaeously run off cliffs. Apparently the myth got around because they run from floods in the area they live and will do anything to avoid water.
2007-01-10 22:01:49 · answer #7 · answered by AVAB 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Lemmings.
2007-01-10 22:03:25 · answer #8 · answered by cdavidbutler2 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Humans. Like raccoons, they are suicidal at times. The only difference is that raccoons purposely get hit by cars while the human species prefers to end life by jumping off of various landforms and structures.
2007-01-10 22:00:17 · answer #9 · answered by Rose 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Lemmins, actaully they were scared and ran off a cliff the people who spread that rumor apparantly diddn't know that.
2007-01-10 22:01:33 · answer #10 · answered by Patty 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lemmings, but it's only a myth/legend, they don't really do that.
2007-01-11 02:21:12 · answer #11 · answered by . 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋