Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!cps3xx!netnews.upenn.edu!pender!rowe
From: rowe@pender (Mickey Rowe)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Suicidal lemmings? (was Re: War and Peace and Chimpanzees)
Message-ID: <19880@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 90 14:07:36 GMT
References: <12900@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> <1283@oravax.UUCP> <31315@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <19712@netnews.upenn.edu> <12994@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: rowe@pender (Mickey Rowe)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 27


First, thanks to Krista for actually doing some research and not just
posting opinions and half-remembered fragments of information (like I
usually do :)

There was something that she said, however, that I was under the
impression was not considered true any more.

In article <12994@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> kja@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (krista.j.anderson) writes:

>There are certain mechanisms I've heard of that take effect under
>crowded conditions.  Lemmings go nuts and run into the sea in
>their panic. 

>-- 
>Krista A.
>HONOR Our Neighbors' Original Rights!

Although it is true that lemmings perform strange mass migrations, I
thought the mass suicide idea had been abandoned.  I remember hearing
a rumor once that some people making a documentary meant to show this
occurrence got tired of waiting for it to happen, and filmed a bunch
of lemmings jumping off of a cliff (but not showing the people herding
them over the edge :(.  Do biologists still believe that there are
naturally occurring conditions under which lemming will do this?

Mickey Rowe    (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)