Michael Shultz, age 11, of Nanty Glo, Penna., for his questions
What exactly is a lamming?
This furry little charmer is first cousin to the water rat and the meadow mouse. All three of them are voles, grass eating members of the big rodent clan* The lemming is most at home in the far north, where snow covers the ground during the winter months. Winter is his best time, for he lives, burrows and feeds under the blanket of snow, safe from his hungry enemies.
Mr. Lemming is a chubby, bobtailed animal about six inches long. His feet are padded with fur to protect his tiny toes from the ice and snow. He has no external ears to get frost bitten and his smooth round face is set off by a set of stiff white whiskers. His eyes are brieht Pna. dark and he wears a cute, puzzled expression on his rage.
Most lemmings are buff. colored or golden brown. Some have a darker stripe down the back and the lemmings of Scandinavia have glossy black heads and shoulders. Many lemmings of the far north change to snow white coats during the winter season. They then look for all the world like cute, white earless kittens.
This pretty little animal has the reputation of being a suicide for, at certain timess thousands of them travel to the sea and plunge into the billowy waves, never to be seen again. This tragedy occurs for two reasons. The lemming is a grass eater and he multiplies too fast. For a while, the lemmings in a community feed on the green vegetation near the ground. Many of them are caught by foxes, ermines and other northern meat eaters. We might say that the lemming population helps to create the expensive furs which are trapped in the northern regions.
Meantime, Mamma Lemming is producing broods of babies. During the summer., a new brood of five or so arrives every 18 days: In three months, the youngsters are grown up and ready to start broods of their own. The lemming population multiplies so fast that there is soon a shortage of food. Whole families then move away in search of greener pastures.
The lemmings travel in a great horde, eating grassy crops and whatever greenery is in their path. The numbers swell with groups of lemming from more over populated areas. Nothing stop's them. When they come to a river., the furry little animals simply swim across it.
When the lemmings migrate, foxes, weasels., bears and a host of other hungry meat eaters crowd in for a feast. Finally the lemmings reach the sea. Perhaps they mistake it for another river. In any case, in they plunge and of course the watery ocean is too much for them. All of them drown.
Back home, the lemming population is building up agairia In anywhere from three to five years, another migration must leave the over¬populated area, hoping to find new feeding grounds.