Debunked Myths

The lemming suicide myth is a dark fable of blind conformity, a story so powerful that 'like lemmings' entered our language to describe mindlessly following the crowd. The image of a furry horde plunging obediently into the sea has served as a cautionary tale about the dangers of groupthink for generations. It seems to speak to a profound, self-destructive instinct in nature—and by extension, in ourselves.

Shockingly, this entire narrative was a cinematic fraud. The myth was cemented by Disney's 1958 Oscar-winning documentary, *White Wilderness*. Presented as a true nature film, it featured breathtaking footage of lemmings migrating en masse and leaping into the ocean. The reality was far more sinister: the filmmakers purchased lemmings in Manitoba and transported them to landlocked Alberta, where they don't naturally live. They then herded the lemmies onto a turntable to simulate a migration and, most notoriously, physically forced them off a cliff into a river to stage the 'mass suicide.'

In reality, lemmings experience dramatic population booms and busts. When densities get too high, they disperse in search of new territory, and some may accidentally drown while swimming across bodies of water—but this is a risk of migration, not intentional suicide. The myth's endurance is a stark lesson in media literacy. It reveals how a compelling, visually dramatic story, even when completely fabricated, can become unshakeable 'common knowledge.' It proves that when a lie is more dramatic than the truth, the lie often wins.