Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
1975
Citation
Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde (1975) 40: 8-34.
Abstract
Lemmings of the genus Lemmus Link, 1795, have long attracted interest because of the high numerical densities attained at intervals by their populations. In earlier times, in northern Europe, such events seemed so remarkable as to be explained by some as a consequence of the animals' having fallen from the sky (HaGSTROM 1749). During the last 25 years, lemmings have been the object of intensive ecological investigation in Eurasia and North America, although there has been no consensus concerning their taxonomic relationships. In 1959, a colony of brown lemmings from arctic Alaska was established in our laboratory, primarily to provide experimental animals for the study of zoonoses indigenous to arctic and subarctic North America. A colony of lemmings from Fennoscandia was similarly established in 1964. The lemmings proved to have advantages as laboratory animals, and at the same time the existence of the colonies permitted observations to be made on their biological characteristics and comparisons of chromosomes to be undertaken for the two forms and their hybrids. The results of these observations and comparisons, with a review of the zoogeography of Lemmus, are reported in the present paper.
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Animal Sciences Commons, Parasitology Commons
Comments
U.S. government work.