Lemmings live in quite specific habitats, and most species live only in Arctic tundra. This ecosystem is a harsh place, and to survive, lemmings must learn a few tricks. They live in tunnels beneath the snow, and create complex tunnel systems with their neighbors. Define LIKE LEMMINGS (phrase) and get synonyms. What is LIKE LEMMINGS (phrase)? LIKE LEMMINGS (phrase) meaning, pronunciation and more.
Contents.Description and habitat Lemmings measure around 13–18 cm (5–7 in) in length and weigh around 23–34 g (0.8–1.2 oz). Lemmings are quite rounded in shape, with brown and black, long, soft fur. They have a very short tail, a stubby, hairy snout, short legs, and small ears. They have a flattened claw on the first digit of their front feet, which helps them to dig in the snow. They are, feeding mostly on mosses and grasses. They also forage through the snow surface to find berries, leaves, shoots, roots, bulbs, and lichens.Lemmings choose their preferred dietary vegetation disproportionately to its occurrence in their habitat.
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They digest grasses and less effectively than related voles.Like other rodents, their grow continuously, allowing them to feed on much tougher forage.Lemmings do not through the harsh northern winter. They remain active, finding food by burrowing through the snow.
These rodents live in large tunnel systems beneath the snow in winter, which protect them from predators. Their burrows have rest areas, toilet areas, and nesting rooms. They make nests out of grasses, feathers, and wool. In the spring, they move to higher ground, where they live on mountain heaths or in forests, continuously breeding before returning in autumn to the tundra.Behavior Like many other rodents, lemmings have periodic population booms and then disperse in all directions, seeking the food and shelter their natural habitats cannot provide. The and are two of the few vertebrates which reproduce so quickly that their population fluctuations are chaotic, rather than following linear growth to a or regular oscillations. Why lemming populations fluctuate with such great variance roughly every four years, before numbers drop to near extinction, is not known. Lemming behaviour and appearance are markedly different from those of other rodents, which are inconspicuously coloured and try to conceal themselves from their predators.
Lemmings, by contrast, are conspicuously coloured and behave aggressively toward predators and even human observers. The lemming defence system is thought to be based on (warning display). Fluctuations in the lemming population affect the behaviour of predators, and may fuel of birds of prey such as to areas further south.For many years, the population of lemmings was believed to change with the, but now some evidence suggests their predators' populations, particularly those of the, may be more closely involved in changing the lemming population. Misconceptions Misconceptions about lemmings go back many centuries. In the 1530s, geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring.
This description was contradicted by natural historian, who accepted that lemmings could fall out of the sky, but claimed that they had been brought over by the wind rather than created. Worm first published dissections of a lemming, which showed that they are anatomically similar to most other rodents such as voles and hamsters, and the work of proved that they had a natural origin.Lemmings have become the subject of a widely popular misconception that they are driven to commit when they migrate by jumping off cliffs. It is not a deliberate mass where the animal voluntarily chooses to die, but rather a result of their migratory behavior.
Driven by strong biological urges, some species of lemmings may migrate in large groups when population density becomes too great. They can swim and may choose to cross a body of water in search of a new habitat. In such cases, many drown if the chosen body of water happens to be an ocean, or is in any case so wide as to exceed their physical capabilities.
Thus, the unexplained fluctuations in the population of Norwegian lemmings, and perhaps a small amount of semantic confusion (suicide not being limited to voluntary deliberation, but also the result of foolishness), helped give rise to the popular stereotype of the suicidal lemmings, particularly after this behavior was staged in the documentary in 1958. The misconception itself is much older, dating back to at least the late 19th century, where in the August 1877 issue of, apparently suicidal lemmings are presumed to be swimming the Atlantic Ocean in search of the submerged continent of.Another myth may have roots in the fiercely aggressive nature of lemmings during population booms, and the corresponding leftovers of predatory frenzies: lemmings do not explode. In popular culture and media The misconception of lemming 'mass suicide' is long-standing and has been popularized by a number of factors. It was well enough known to be mentioned in ', a 1951 short story.
In 1955, illustrator drew an adventure comic with the title 'The Lemming with the Locket'. This comic, which was inspired by a 1953 article, showed massive numbers of lemmings jumping over Norwegian cliffs.
Perhaps the most influential and, for the lemmings involved, tragic, presentation of the myth was the 1958 Disney film which won an and in which producers threw lemmings off a cliff to their deaths to fake footage of a 'mass suicide', as well as faked scenes of mass migration. A documentary, Cruel Camera, found the lemmings used for White Wilderness were flown from to, Canada, where far from 'casting themselves bodily out into space' (as the film's narrator states), they were, in fact, dumped off the cliff by the camera crew from a truck. Because of the limited number of lemmings at their disposal, which in any case were the wrong sub-species, the migration scenes were simulated using tight camera angles and a large, snow-covered turntable.Lemmings also appear in 's 1953 short story ', where their suicidal urges are attributed to the lingering consciousness of an alien group mind, which had inhabited the species in the prehistoric past. Classification. Order. Superfamily.
Family. Subfamily: voles, lemmings, and related species. Tribe Lemmini.
( D. Groenlandicus). ( D. Hudsonius).
( D. Kilangmiutak). ( D. Nelsoni) or St. Lawrence Island collared lemming ( D. Nunatakensis).
( D. Richardsoni). ( D. Rubricatus).
( D. Torquatus). ( D. Unalascensis).
( D. Vinogradovi). ( L. Amurensis). ( L.
Lemmus). ( L. Sibiricus). ( L. Trimucronatus). ( L.
Portenkoi). ( M. Schisticolor). ( S. Borealis). ( S. Cooperi).
Tribe: over 120 species. ( E.
Luteus). ( E. Przewalskii).
( L. Lagurus).
Over 100 other species not known as lemmingsSee also.References.
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Norwegian, from Old Norselómundr(“lemming”), perhaps from Samiluomek
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK)IPA(key): /lɛm.ɪŋ/
- Rhymes: -ɛmɪŋ
Noun[edit]
lemming (plurallemmings)
- A small Arctic and Subarcticrodent from any of six genera of similar rodents.
- 1876, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, chapter 2, page 18:
- The well-known lemmings, in severe winters, at long intervals, move down from the mountains of Scandinavia in immense numbers, crossing lakes and rivers, eating their way through haystacks, and surmounting every obstacle till they reach the sea, whence very few return.
- 2014, M.P. Fedunkiw, A Degree of FutilityGB, page 61:
- Like a lemming, I followed the crowd, got to the right line and was concentrating hard when queried by the customs officer.
- (figuratively) Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to follow a leader off a cliff.
- 2004, Ilse Hobbs; Jan Havenga, A Practical Guide to Strategy, →ISBN, page 127:
- Lemmings are strongly cohesive, but could be, in organisational terms, highly destructive for the business.
Derived terms[edit]
- bog lemmings, Synaptomysspp.
- collared lemmings, Dicrostonyxspp.
- steppe lemming, Lagurus lagurus
- true lemmings, Lemmus spp.
- wood lemming, Myopus schisticolor
- yellow steppe lemmings, Eolagurusspp.
Translations[edit]
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Dutch[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
audio
Noun[edit]
lemmingm (plurallemmingenorlemmings, diminutivelemminkjen)
- lemming(rodent)
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA(key): /lɛ.miŋ/
Noun[edit]
lemmingm (plurallemmings)
Further reading[edit]
- “lemming” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Portuguese[edit]
Noun[edit]
lemmingm (plurallemmings)
- Alternative form of lémingue
Spanish[edit]
Noun[edit]
lemmingm (plurallemmings)
- lemming(rodent)
