Many People Have Long Believed That Lemmings Are Rodents That Jump off Cliffs. Disney Is to Blame

When people hear the word “lemmings,” they often think of the legendary action-puzzle video game created by Psygnosis in 1991. In it, these small creatures blindly follow the gamers’ commands, even choosing to sacrifice themselves. The gameplay mechanics have a specific origin: a Disney documentary. However, what if much of what that documentary claimed was false? What if the film crew orchestrated it to capture footage of lemmings appearing to kill themselves?

So, what’s a lemming really? A lemming is a small rodent typically found in areas near the Arctic or in tundra biomes. They resemble field mice and muskrats, measuring between 5 and 7 inches in length. They have very short tails, stubby furry snouts, short legs, and small ears.

Additionally, lemmings dig through the snow using a claw on their front paws. As herbivores, they live in extensive tunnel systems. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings aren’t docile and don’t behave like a herd. While they may move in groups due to periodic population explosions, they can be quite aggressive, even towards predators.

A misconception. The origin of the misconception about lemmings can be traced back to Disney’s 1958 documentary White Wilderness. The film suggested that, due to their high reproduction rates and the lack of resources needed to sustain them, lemmings would sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their population. They would do so by throwing themselves off cliffs, allegedly killing themselves in groups. White Wilderness even presented footage to reinforce this claim.

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The origin of the myth. Long before the filming of White Wilderness, rumors had already surrounded lemmings. In the 16th century, Bavarian geographer Jacob Ziegler claimed that these rodents fell from the sky during storms and died when the grass grew in spring.

This bold statement was based on local folklore. Indigenous Inuit and Yupik populations had their own legends about lemmings that echoed Ziegler’s theory. Over time, science debunked these claims.

Lemmings in pop culture. Science fiction and fantasy have likely taken the notion of lemmings traveling through the air and transformed it into the idea of creatures that jump off cliffs. Since the 1950s, leaping lemmings have appeared in several works. One example is Cyril M. Kornbluth’s 1951 story The Marching Morons, which likens lemmings to space travelers marching to Venus to die.

Additionally, a Disney comic by Carl Barks depicted lemmings jumping off Norwegian cliffs in one of his Donald Duck adventures. Arthur C. Clarke also contributed to this narrative in his story The Possessed, where he attributes the rodents’ behavior to alien group possession.

What really happened in the documentary? James Algar, the director of White Wilderness, originally intended to film an authentic lemming sacrifice, but it didn’t seem feasible. As a result, the director of photography suggested recruiting local children to hunt lemmings for $0.25 each. Once they had gathered enough, children threw the lemmings off a cliff. This was a cruel decision that’s uncomfortable to watch today, although not uncommon in animal documentaries of that time.

In the end, White Wilderness joined other Disney films of that time that haven’t fared well with time. It was removed from Disney+ alongside classics like the racially insensitive Song of the South.

The myth of the lemming was eventually born, leading to an extraordinary video game and a widespread misconception that persists to this day. A fascinating article in Popular Science Monthly claimed in 1877 that suicidal lemmings aimed to throw themselves into the Atlantic in search of the lost continent of Lemuria.

Image | Kervennic

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