The truth about Norwegian lemmings
bbc.com
bbc.com
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume...
To give you an idea of just how massive these population explosions are here is an excerpt from the article:
"Mr. R. Collett, a Norwegian naturalist, writes that in November, 1868, a ship sailed for fifteen hours through a swarm of lemmings, which extended as far over the Trondhjems-fjord as the eye could reach."
The 3-5 year cycles drive the whole arctic ecosystem. When there are lots of lemmings there are lots of everything. More lemmings means more food for predators so tundra-nesting birds do really well, fledging lots of chicks since the predators can stuff themselves senseless with lemmings. In years with low numbers of lemmings then the birds get hammered hard until the number of predators crashes also.
Also, that 'fifteen hours' doesn't say much. Speeds of sailing ships differ a lot, depending on the ship, wind direction relative to ship direction, and, of course, the density of the lemmings in the water. The fjors is about 130km long, though, and the eye would reach (depending on height above sea level and weather) around 10km.
What? Pre-made tweets? I see. It’s not enough to make up hashtags for people to create trends with, nowadays you have to write the entire tweet for them.