This web site was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Biology 323, Animal Behavior, at Davidson College in the Spring Semester 2007.

All You Ever Wanted to Know About Lemmings (family Arvicolidae)

An investigation into the lemming's habitat, social spacing, social organization, and mating system

The term lemming applies to several different microtine species in the family Arvicolidae. Lemmings are small rodents that live in the northern hemisphere. Many people mistakenly believe that lemmings will blindly follow each other anywhere, such as off of a cliff to commit mass suicide. This behavior does not ever take place. However, lemming populations have been recorded to go through striking population boom and bust cycles, arousing the interest of many scientists.

In this website I will investigate the nature of the lemming in terms of its behavior. In particular, I will go over habitat, social spacing, and the mating system. Use the menu on the left to navigate through this website. There are many different lemming subspecies; therefore, I will include several lemming subspecies in this website, and assume, unless I state otherwise, that what holds for one subspecies holds for all others, even though this may in fact not be the case.

Lemmus lemmus - The Norwegian Lemming

(Permission pending - Copyright Josef Hlasek - http://www.hlasek.com/lemmus_lemmus_8126.html )

Last Modified: 04/27/07

Contact Andrew Martens at: anmartens@davidson.edu