The large population increases from reproduction causes the population to reach the carrying capacity of its environment fairly quickly.  When an area becomes too crowded, it is in the lemmings’ natural instinct to migrate.  When the group reaches a body of water, their innate reaction is to swim across, even if the body of water is too large.  Unfortunately, some populations head too far north and reach the ocean.  These groups will follow their instincts and begin to swim.  They swim until they are worn out and drown in the ocean.

     Because of this behavior, it is a common myth that lemmings are suicidal.  When I was young, I used to play a video game that was inspired by this myth.  The game was called "Lemmings," and I used to play it a lot on my super nintendo.  Because of this game, whenever I heard the word "lemming" I would think of a little guy with green hair that would walk off a cliff to his doom unless you built him a bridge.

Title Screen


Lemmings falling to their acidy doom.