GRGR (14): Lemmings

[Craig Leff]

In article <pynchon-l.199911160925.BAA25498 at home.humboldt1.com>,
jzog at humboldt1.com (J. Herzog) wrote:

> It was false, ironically a Disney "True Life Adventure", and the BBC did a
> story on it round about the time of the last GRGR, when I first became a
> semi-lurker.
> 
> J.
> 
> (time for mouseketeer role call? yeah, I'm here)

       Claim:   During the filming of the 1958 Disney nature documentary
       White Wilderness, the film crew induced lemmings into jumping off a
       cliff and into the sea in order to document their supposedly suicidal
       behavior. 

       Status:   True. 


       Synopsis:   Lemming suicide is fiction. Contrary to popular belief,
       lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the
       sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings
       to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a
       migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning
       in lakes or rivers. These deaths are not deliberate "suicide" attempts,
       however, but accidental deaths resulting from the lemmings' venturing
       into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over
       dangerous ledges. In fact, when the competition for food, space, or
       mates becomes too intense, lemmings are much more likely to kill each
       other than to kill themselves. 

       Disney's White Wilderness was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is
       not a native habitat for lemmings and has no outlet to the sea. Lemmings
       were imported from Manitoba for use in the film, purchased from Inuit
       children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a
       snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a
       "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were
       transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water.
       White Wilderness does not depict an actual lemming migration -- at no
       time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at
       once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings
       deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of
       migrating creatures. 

       Nine different photographers spent three years shooting and assembling
       footage for the various segments that comprise White Wilderness.   It
       is not known whether Disney approved or knew about the activities of
       James R. Simon, the prinicipal photographer for the lemmings sequence.

       Origins:   Nature documentaries are notoriously difficult to film, as
       wild animals are not terribly cooperative. Many nature shows and films
       of this era -- including Disney's "True-Life Adventure" movies and
       TV's Wild Kingdom -- staged events to capture exciting footage for
       their audiences. The sight of a few lemmings mistaking a lake or ocean
       for a stream and drowning after swimming out too far, or being pushed
       over a cliff during the frenzied rush of migration, has become the basis
       of a widespread belief that lemmings commit suicide en masse when
       their numbers grow too large. 

       Last updated:   27 February 1996 

            The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm 
                   Please use this URL in all links or references to this page 

           Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-1999 by Barbara and David
P. Mikkelson


              Sources: 

    Burnam, Tom.   More Misinformation. 
           New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980.   ISBN 0-690-01685-9  
(p. 140).

    Charle, Suzanne.   "Television; Hunting Wildlife with a Movie Camera." 
           The New York Times.   13 March 1988   (p. B31). 

    Corry, John.   "'Cruel Camera', About Animal Abuse." 
           The New York Times.   24 March 1986   (p. C18). 

    Ferry, Jon.   "Lemmings Commit Mass Murder, Not Mass Suicide." 
           Reuters.   6 March 1992. 

    Foreman, Judy.   "How & Why." 
           The Boston Globe.   7 March 1994   (p. 30). 

    Maltin, Leonard.   The Disney Films. 
           Crown: New York., 1984.   ISBN 0-517-55407-0   (pp. 148-9). 

    Poundstone, William.   Bigger Secrets. 
           Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1986.   ISBN 0-395-53008-3   (pp.
235-6).

    Sagi, Douglas.   "Scientists Demolish Lemming Legends." 
           The Vancouver Sun.   21 February 1992   (Diary, p. D2).

Craig Leff
cleff at haleakala.jpl.nasa.gov

My opinions are my own and not those of NASA, JPL or Caltech.