Quick & curious · Nature

The lemming plunge in the film was staged.

A lemming among dwarf shrubs in the Kevo nature reserve in Finland
Photo: Lakkahillo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original

1958Disney's "White Wilderness"

The story behind it

Lemmings don't throw themselves to their deaths. For a 1958 Disney film, they were pushed off a cliff.

The scene was shot in Alberta, the "mass migration" with a few dozen animals on a snow-covered turntable. What is real: lemming numbers swing. When it gets too crowded, some species move away, swim across water – and sometimes drown.