Lemmings

Wording of this Handout:

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Have you ever heard the story that lemmings fall off cliffs and drown in the sea?
The story goes that every year or so lemmings, which are little rodents, like guinea pigs - have so many offspring that they start to move across the land. looking for food. . . and when they reach the sea they just keep going. until millions of them die.
Walt Disney, in the 1950's helped this story along when it made a wildlife movie in which lemmings were (apparently) imported and then pushed off a cliff.
The truth is lemmings may fall accidentally, as they move about or migrate across steep Norwegian mountain country, but never do they commit mass suicide!
So where did the story come from? It goes back to Scandinavia and the Inuit (Eskimo) folklore. It was picked up by 19 century naturalists and passed on as if it was a fact, even though no-one had ever actually seen it happen.

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If the stars came out only once a year, everyone would go outside to see them.