Jeff Bollenbacker, age 10, of Huntsville, Alabama, for his question:

Why do lemmings commit suicide?

Nature's small animals do not think as we do. They live in a sort of hazy dream world and our notions of murder and suicide are quite beyond their grasp. From our point of view, teeming hordes of little lemmings seem to plunge into the sea and commit suicide. But from their point of view, this is not what happens at all. This problem is very interesting to scientists. But even they cannot explain all the details. However, they suspect that the disasters are caused by lemming population explosions and that the furry little creatures perish accidentally when they try to find more living space.

Lemmings multiply at a great rate and teeming new generations outrun their food supplies. In swarming numbers they set forth to find vegetation in other .places. Along the way they swim many streams. When at last they reach the seashore, they plunge trustfully into the ocean    and perish there in the tossing waves. This seems to be the most likely explanation, but scientists are not absolutely certain.