Lemmings don't commit suicide

It's a lie! Lemmings don't commit mass suicide.

There is a common myth that every few years, lemmings, apparently overcome by deep-rooted impulses, deliberately run over a cliff in their millions, to be dashed to their deaths on the rocks below, or to drown in the raging ocean.

Well, it's not true!

Apparently this myth started with a 1958 disney movie - White Wilderness.

Disney used a turntable covered in snow to fake the migration sequence and afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures. Lemmings are seen flying into the water. The final shot shows the sea awash with dying lemmings.

This was Disney's attempt to explain the cyclic fluctuations in lemming populations. But this account is as real as Mickey Mouse and company.