Dee Workman age 11, of Columbia, SC

Why does the lemming throw itself into the sea?

Everybody loves a mystery, `And the lemmings have one of the most mysterious habits in the animal kingdom. Every few years they leave home in a mass. They troupe over hill and dales swimming across streams and rivers; At last they come to the sea. Into the waves they plunge and swim out to deep water, No one ever sees them again, No one is quite certain of the reason and so far the lemmings themselves have refused to explain the mystery of their mass suicide.

It seems a shame, for the lemming is a pretty little darling. Though in certain places he gets to be quite a pest to the farmers; He is a vegetarian, a member of the rodent family and closely related to the gentle voles. He is a plump little fellow about five inches long plus one stubby inch of furry tail; He wears a longs thick coat of the softest fur. Even his feet are padded with fur for he enjoys a cool climate and sometimes makes his home right in the ice and snow.

There are lemmings in many cool and cold countries north of the equator. Some wear coats of yellows some dress in dull gold some wear tan and others are the color of light honey. The Scandanavian Lemming is a honey blond with a cap of glossy black. He looks like he is wearing a shoulder length page‑boy style wig.

The furry little fellow sometimes builds a burrow under a boulder, Sometimes he settles for a round, moss‑lined nest right under the snow. He feeds on mosses roots, grasses and whatever green plants he can forage. And he multiplies. My, how he multiplies; Mrs. Lemming begins early in the spring with a litter of five or six. The babies are grown in a few weeks and ready to leave home and make room for another litter, One brood after another is raised until the fall. Some of the later litters may number eleven. By late summer, the spring babies are ready to have children of their own.

At this rate, the neighborhood is soon teeming with lemmings. Some of them are devoured by foxes and other meat eaters. But every four years the population problem becomes unbearable even, it seems, to the lemmings themselves. Then begins the mad rush to the sea,

Groups of lemmings start out and gather more groups on the way. They stop to gobble what greenery they can find. Mrs. Lemming sometimes stops to raise one more brood and on they go. Foxes, bears, weasels, hawks and owls gather to help the lemmings carry out their suicide plans. Even the caribou gobble up a few of the furry fellows. A few get left behind or fail to keep up. Only these escape to start the lemming population all over again.

The Eskimos believe that the migrating lemmings fall from the sky with the snow flakes. Others say they migrate to see ancient pasture grounds of their ancestors, now covered by the sea, The truth may well be that the little fellows are merely trying to spread out and find more food and living spaces They may be too silly to realize that they cannot swim over the wide ocean. But we are not certain, and the lemming mass suicide is still a mystery.