Lemming populations fluctuate drastically. Every few years, there are great population booms, causing lemmings to swarm across their range to find food. This may lead them to bodies of water and if they reach the ocean, they may drown. This phenomenon has lead to the myth of mass movement of lemmings jumping off cliffs and into the sea. Lemming predator populations, such as arctic foxes and snowy owls, may increase as a result of an increase in lemming populations.
Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other gases may lead to an increase in temperature and a decrease in snow ice cover in parts of the true lemmings range. Lemmings eat mosses that grow with snow. They could not move northward since the northern portions of their range are already subjected to global climate change influences. |
