The Mystery Of The Lemmings’ Suicide

One day in 1868， a ship full of tourists was sailing along the coast of Norway， the deck was crowded with people. Suddenly， a tourist shouted： "look！ What's that over there？" Following his finger， the people saw a large area of black nearby the ship were moving slowly. As the ship approached， people found that black things are countless lemmings， they were struggling to swim to the sea. The small lemmings couldnt fight against the sea， they soon drowned because of sheer exhaustion， immediately the bodies of lemmings floated on the surface of sea. All visitors couldn't believe their eyes that the lemmings suicide in groups！

Lemmings，

Animals From The Sky

Lemming is actually a kind of mouse， but is different from normal mouse. Lemmings and our familiar hamsters have close kinship， they are lovely animals， their characteristic is any part of their body is small. On the lemmings oval round body， there are a pair of small and shiny eyes， small ears， a little tail and four short legs. The length of lemmings is between 7 to 15 cm， there is a layer of fluffy hair on the surface of their bodies. As living mainly in the Arctic， in the summer， the lemmings colours are mainly gray， black and brown， which will become white in winter.

The Eskimos call them "animals from the sky”， the Nordic call them “ the sky rat". The reason why lemmings are so called is that every four years the number of them will increase largely in a short time， just like dropping from the sky. Lemmings can not do magic， their increasing number all benefits from the strong ability to reproduce. Every March， when the arctic is still in the cold， the lemmings already enter the breeding season. A female lemmings can have 12 babies one time， and breed 7 to 8 times a year. The young lemmings will become mature and have the ability to reproduce after 30 days. Even counting in the most conservative measures， a female lemming will have more than 10000 descendants after a year. This propagation velocity is second to none in the animal kingdom！

The Lemmings

"Suicide By Jumping Into The Sea"

As the number of lemmings swells rapidly， the lemmings become agitated and aggressive， they gradually show the very strong sense of migration. Gradually， the lemmings who like to live alone

gather together to form a large group， sometimes the amount of the group could exceed hundreds of thousands of lemmings. In the end， the lemmings migrate， which is more like a big flee from famine， and such big flee is performed every four years in the northern hemisphere. Among all the lemmings， only the Norway lemmings will jump into the sea and be drowned in crowds. What the people saw in 1868 off the coast of Norway was such a scene.