If one day, the earth's population exploded and its resources were too poor to accommodate so many people to survive, would you choose to give up your life for your next generation?
This is a very heavy topic. Humans do not have the ability of thanos gem gloves, and not all people can migrate to other planets, when the population explodes and the earth's resources are exhausted, it will undoubtedly be a nightmare for human beings.
But it takes courage to voluntarily give up the right to live, a dedication that not everyone can have.
It is precisely because of this that people have given high respect to the "brave dedication" of lemmings.
This stems from a long-standing phenomenon: every few years, herds of lemmings jump off cliffs by the sea and commit suicide en masse. Many people believe that when lemmings' breeding populations grow to unsustainable levels, it is instinct that drives them to commit suicide, a courageous dedication.
Humans are still hesitating, but lemmings are bravely sacrificing without hesitation, what kind of animal is this?
Lemmings, with the appearance of pet hamsters, are very cute and cute, belonging to the rodent hamster family, but live in the Arctic all year round, with rounded bodies, with plush fur, very adaptable to the cold Arctic region.
Lemmings have a lot of mysteries, and people have a lot of misconceptions about them.
Strongest fecundity
Lemmings are the most fertile of any animal known in the world.
It is the proof of nature's law of survival: if animals do not have special survival skills, they will try to reproduce, so as not to die. This is true of rats and rabbits, and lemmings are no exception.
They can give birth to seven or eight litters a year, and one litter is generally 12 litters. Cubs can reach sexual maturity in twenty days, and then reproduce the next generation, the reproductive speed is amazing, less than half a year, a male and a female can breed about 1.6 million large families, if you consider the environment, natural enemies and other factors, then at least half of them survived, about 800,000.
Mass suicide
In the 17th century, there was a very interesting phenomenon, in a certain area of Norway, lemmings suddenly appeared in large numbers, people seemed to know where they came from, so natural scientists called lemmings "falling from the sky" animals.
In fact, this is related to the mass migration of lemming mice.
Every three or four years, the lemming population surges to its peak. When the density of lemmings in an area is too high, in order to survive, a large group of lemmings will set out to find a new home, because of the relatively large number, you can understand the meaning of "falling from the sky".
So is the "collective suicide" of lemmings for the "brave sacrifice" of the next generation?
Pictured: Snow owl uses lemming carcasses as nests
No! This is the result of people's self-conjecture.
Mass jumping and exposed suicide are considered common forms of suicide in lemmings, and we can analyze them one by one.
Collective sea jumping is not a suicidal act, but a situation in migration. In fact, lemmings can swim, and in their opinion, jump into the sea just to be able to get to the other side and find a new home. Inevitably, some lemmings drowned, but this was by no means a suicide, a problem that all migratory animals have to face.
Exposure suicide refers to: when the lemming population is saturated, due to the pressure of space food, resulting in the lemming adrenal glands increased, become restless, at this time the skin color will change, from gray-brown to conspicuous orange, is believed by many people to attract predators to eat themselves, in order to reduce the number, is also a suicidal behavior.
However, this phenomenon of coat color change, which many scientists believe is caused by the endocrine environment of the external environment, has nothing to do with suicidal behavior.
Pseudoscience "collective suicide" has been popularized many times, why are most people still willing to believe in suicide theory?
The imagination of human emotions
People have given a lot of meaning to this kind of righteous behavior: brave, selfless...
Just like the grinning expression of a pet dog, for a dog, it is just an expression, and for us, it is considered to be a smile that expresses pleasure.
The act of "mass suicide" provides an irresistible metaphor for human behavior. Over the past century, this example has been used to express the anxiety of individuals being overwhelmed and destroyed by mass phenomena in modern society.
Pictured: White Wilderness Poster
Media misinformation
In 1958, in the Disney nature film "White Wilderness", there was a phenomenon of collective diving into the sea.
However, this scene was created and did not really happen.
The filmmakers hoped to capture a dramatic picture, they created a death diving of lemmings, they bought dozens of lemmings, placed on the edge of the cliff, hoping that they could "collectively jump the sea", but these little guys did not want to jump into the sea, the filmmakers were very impatient, so when filming in the camera, dozens of lemmings were pushed off the cliff, creating the illusion of collective jumping.
Lemmings still have many mysteries that remain unanswered, but the only certainty is that lemmings do not commit suicide.
Scientists also have a new understanding of the reasons for the migration of lemming mice. Lemmings outbreak, lack of resources, is not the only reason, scientists speculate that migration may be an instinct for lemmings, even if there is no worry about food and clothing, it will also migrate; it may also be because of environmental pressures that cause lemmings to increase adrenal glands, resulting in excess energy in lemmings, and need to vent through migration movements.
Whatever the reason, I believe, what people prefer to believe is the brave dedication of lemmings.