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From: nickb@harlequin.co.uk (Nick Barnes)
Subject: Re: Is this example alive?
In-Reply-To: rendell@cs.monash.edu.au's message of 12 Sep 1994 04:33:30 GMT
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Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 11:13:18 GMT
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In article <350lmq$b5l@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au> rendell@cs.monash.edu.au (Robert Paige Rendell) writes:

   Somewhat off the topic, I've heard that lemmings running into the sea is
   a myth.

Well, you have heard wrong. Lemmings do indeed take part in mass
population movements that take them into rivers and other bodies of
water. Recent research indicates that this is in response to grazing
pressure, which causes the grazed plants to produce amounts of a
digestion-inhibiting chemical, so the lemmings graze more and more and
digest less and less; the migratory movements take place at the limit
of this effect.

Migrations which take large numbers of creatures through significant
hazards, leading to significant loss of life, are not uncommon in
nature. Like other species which do this kind of thing frequently,
lemmings can swim....

Nick Barnes, nickb@harlequin.co.uk
