The truth about Norwegian lemmings

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141122-the-truth-about-lemmings

by schrofer • 12 years ago

26 6 12 years ago

idid• 12 years ago

a real eye-opener. was planning to use lemmings in a startup demolition company, but now i know they won't do. will have to get back to the drawing board...

smackay• 12 years ago

Nice photos but low on detail. Here's a more interesting account of Myodes lemmus from August 1877 edition of Popular Science:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume...

To give you an idea of just how massive these population explosions are here is an excerpt from the article:

"Mr. R. Collett, a Norwegian naturalist, writes that in November, 1868, a ship sailed for fifteen hours through a swarm of lemmings, which extended as far over the Trondhjems-fjord as the eye could reach."

The 3-5 year cycles drive the whole arctic ecosystem. When there are lots of lemmings there are lots of everything. More lemmings means more food for predators so tundra-nesting birds do really well, fledging lots of chicks since the predators can stuff themselves senseless with lemmings. In years with low numbers of lemmings then the birds get hammered hard until the number of predators crashes also.

Someone• 12 years ago

But given the claims of this article, can that source be trusted? I tried to dig deeper, found zillions of copies of that quote and http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1877...., very likely Collett's article, but behind a paywall, where I have to register to even see the price of the article.

Also, that 'fifteen hours' doesn't say much. Speeds of sailing ships differ a lot, depending on the ship, wind direction relative to ship direction, and, of course, the density of the lemmings in the water. The fjors is about 130km long, though, and the eye would reach (depending on height above sea level and weather) around 10km.

teddyh• 12 years ago

“Tweetable truths about Norwegian lemmings […]”

What? Pre-made tweets? I see. It’s not enough to make up hashtags for people to create trends with, nowadays you have to write the entire tweet for them.

alextgordon• 12 years ago

The real revelation is that I can read this bbc.com article. Apparently they've stopped blocking British people!

oblio• 12 years ago

The morals of the 50's seem to be a bit different than those of the 2000's...

The truth about Norwegian lemmings

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