NIGERIA: They may have a reputation for committing suicide, but it appears that lemmings actually have a powerful survival mechanism.
Biologists have found that the furry Scandinavian rodents use their multicoloured fur and emit loud screams to scare away predators.
They say that the rodents employ a form of aposematism – the use of colours and other signals to warn that an animal is toxic or dangerous.
Unlike other rodents, the creatures are known to fight back against attackers with loud screams, lunges and biting with their sharp teeth.
Indeed there is anecdotal evidence of Norwegian lemmings taking on animals that are much larger than them, including cats, birds of prey and even large dogs like bull mastifs.
Professor Malte Andersson, a biologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who conducted the research, said the lemmings appear to use its distinctive colours and aggressive behaviour to ensure predators can tell it apart from other rodents such as voles.
He said: ‘Distinctive, contrast-rich colouration, anti-predator calls and threat postures of the Norwegian lemming form a multimodal suit of posematic traits, warning predators that this is a more dangerous prey than the smaller sympatric voles.
‘The traits immediately announce species identity – powerful lemming, not weaker vole – and may therefore increase the chances of surviving encounters with predators.’
In the study, which is published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Professor Andersson compared the behaviour of the colourful Norwegian lemmings with the dull brown Alaskan lemmings when threatened.
They found the Norwegian lemmings gave loud calls in 32 per cent of encounters with predators and most called and lunged if surprised.
