do leemings really jump off cliffs?

Question

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Answer 1

No they don't. It was a David Attenbourgh programme that started the rumour. But what really happend was the producer of the programme actually fell over a lemming and the lemming fell down the cliff.
The paper then ran a headline "lemmings over the cliff". And the rest as they say is history.

Answer 2

Jump, as in step up to the edge and then take a flying leap, no, but they do stampede in exaggerationally large groups, and while stampeding, those following can't see where the leaders are going and when the leaders arrive at the edges of cliffs, they are being followed too closely by too many followers to stop and turn around, and wind up getting pushed off of cliffs and over rocks and into trees, and into rivers and lakes and oceans, where there is a larger concentration of their natural predators than on land.

The theory is that some time in relatively recent zoological history, their natural predators on land became suddenly, if not cataclysmically extinct, and they developed these stampedes as ways to naturally cull their own population to prevent overcrowding... quite similarly to the reason that humanity has begun issuing what are known as Darwin Awards.

Answer 3

I think it was a Disney film which is the origin of the Legend. It was called White Wilderness and the crew forced the Lemmings off the cliff to film it.

Answer 4

Not exactly. They do travel in groups, if the front of that group walked off the edge of a cliff, the entire group might really follow, which is the point of that saying. As I understand it though, they don't make a habit of doing that.

Answer 5

Dunno. You would have to contact Jan Leeming to find out if any of her family have ever jumped off a cliff. I believe LEMINGS do though. Lol>

Answer 6

No, they don't, as explained by the great quiz show, QI. It was a myth started by Disney.