Lemmings jumping off cliffs myth disney full#
Lemmings jumping off cliffs myth disney series#

(Source: Cruel Camera, Canadian Broadcasting Company, 1982). The body of water pictured in the scene isn’t the Arctic ocean, but the Bow River in downtown Calgary!.They didn’t have enough lemmings, so the same small handful of lemmings were thrown in the water again and again to create the illusion of a mass group suicide and,.Producers paid Inuit children in Manitoba a quarter per lemming to gather up the rodents.The documentary interviewed Walt Disney’s nephew and exposed some pretty embarrassing facts about the way that Disney staged that scene, including that: The relevant scenes from that documentary can be watched here from the 20:54 minute mark to 29:50:

Lemmings jumping off cliffs myth disney series#

The entire charade was first exposed by a 1982 Canadian Broadcasting Company series called Cruel Camera, which aimed to show the world the unkind ways animals are treated off-screen for movies and documentaries. In fact, lemmings do nothing of the sort and the entire scene was faked by Disney!Īccording to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the producers staged the entire scene by importing lemmings to the area of Alberta where the documentary was filmed (where lemmings don’t live naturally, by the way) and then essentially forcing the lemmings over the cliff and into the water! The narrator claims the lemmings do this because they mistake the ocean for a lake and are just trying to make it to the other side. What’s interesting is that the producers felt the need to pretend like they were “clearing up a myth,” when in fact they were about to perpetrate their own little hoax on the audience!īecause what happens next is that the lemmings are seen purportedly jumping in a mass “frenzy” over giant cliffs and into the Arctic sea, where they swim out into the water and eventually drown en masse.

And, as often happens in man’s nature lore, it’s a story both true and false as we shall see in a moment. The story is one of the persistent tales of the arctic. Here’s an actual living legend: for it’s said of this tiny animal that it commits mass suicide by rushing into the sea in droves. The scene starts off with the narrator relaying the lemming suicide myth to the audience, saying:

Lemmings jumping off cliffs myth disney full#

Here’s the full scene in all its grainy vintage glory: Now Disney didn’t create the myth that lemmings jump off cliffs to commit mass suicide - there are references to the concept dating as far back as this 1918 National Geographic Magazine - but Disney is widely credited with popularizing the idea with its 1958 nature documentary White Wilderness. How Disney Faked Mass Lemming Suicide in a Nature Documentary

These unusual fluctuations apparently create mass migration effects and may have something to do with the bizarre urban legend of mass lemming suicide, which was given a boost by none other than the Walt Disney Company.

In fact, certain species of lemmings are known to experience significant population booms every few years before their numbers suddenly dwindle to close to nothing. Lemmings live underground during the harsh winters, but come above ground during the warmer months – when they can get busy with each other fast. I mean just look at this little guy: Oh my god, so cute! They look something like a gerbil or hamster.Īnd they are cute AF. The story is a bizarre one, as is its lasting cultural impact, so let’s dive right into this peculiar chapter in documentary history.Ī lemming is a small rodent native to the arctic tundra. I’m referring to that time in 1958 when the Walt Disney Company staged a mass lemming suicide in an Academy Award-nominated documentary film. It means, basically, “don’t just go where others are going.”īut did you know it’s a total fabrication resulting from a fake documentary? Ever heard the phrase “don’t be a lemming”?