The Truth About Lemmings

Image: Kotaku.com, Lemmings Video Game (1991)

We all know the story about how lemmings have a tendency to jump to their deaths en mass off a cliff. It inspired the classic 90's video game shown above.
Well it turns out it's all Disney propoganda and not true at all, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
In the 1958 White Wilderness series, Disney featured a segment on lemmings and staged a scene showing a rake of lemmings jumping to their death, with the narration of the piece implying the rodents have a compulsion for mass suicide.
An investigation in 1983 found that the lemmings were thrown off the cliff by Disney filmmakers and their numbers and movement exaggerated using the use of a snow covered turntable.

 

 

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