Lemmings jumping off cliffs gif
However, this does a disservice to these cuddly hamster-lookalikes. To refer to an individual as a lemming thus became synonymous with calling them a follower of a large group-a community on an unthinking course towards mass destruction. That was before the modern meaning gained traction: That populations tumbled because packs of lemmings would occasionally run head-first off of cliffs, plunging to their self-induced death for no apparent reason. Back in the 19th century, the Naturalist Edward Nelson wrote that 'the Norton Sound Eskimo have an odd superstition that the White Lemming lives in the land beyond the stars and that it sometimes comes down to the earth, descending in a spiral course during snow-storms.'" "In the 1530s, the geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg, tried to explain these variations in populations by saying that lemmings fell out of the sky in stormy weather, and then suffered mass extinctions with the sprouting of the grasses of spring. For years, theories on these populace peaks and plummets varied from the supernatural to the absurd. Populations of lemmings fluctuate dramatically, from massive herds to near extinction. However, the long-lived myth actually has its roots in Hollywood trickery. That is, except for the lemming-a small, furry, gerbil-like rodent that has come to be defined by its alleged tendency to mindlessly kill itself by jumping off of cliffs. Perhaps because when your daily thought pattern is limited to eat-sleep-defecate, there's no time for existential exegesis or contemplating the futility of life. Animals are rarely known for their suicidal tendencies.