[OESY]

Oy Vey, we knew lemmings had a Masada Complex, but these scientists have discovered nothing new. Was it that they were stressed out? fell for the line "I'm Cliff --drop over sometime? tried hang gliding without wings? had a poor quality diet? over-ate and over-produced? were too dense? did not appreciate sunspots? did not enjoy the Disney nature film "White Wilderness"? were abused in early childhood by Eskimo children? were maligned by powerful movie studios? With studies like this we may never know.

One thing is certain: these scientist-investigators recommend further studies and more funding to hire teams of psychologists, social scientists and zookeepers to find out.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Mon Oct 27,11:43 AM ET

Democratic presidential lemmings (From left) the very Rev. Al Sharpton, Union Rep. Richard Gephardt, registered Independent General Wesley Clark (news - web sites), Sen. Joseph Gore-Lieberman, Sen. John Edwards, esq., Rep. Dennis Kucinichlav, former Gov. Howard Dean-Marx (news - web sites), former gangsta Carol Moseley Braun and Sen. Jaques Kerry.

[ClearCase_guy]

Wow!! This is exciting news! Wildlife biologists have really made a breakthrough here!

I suggest a catchy name for this new discovery. Perhaps "Predator-Prey Relationship" or something similar. They might even be able to come up with a fancy graph that shows prey populations increasing, but then the predator population increasing (a lagging indicator). Then the prey population line would crash, followed by the predator population crash. Then the cycle would be repeated in waves within the graph.

Really exciting!!

[chimera]

Still, it's comforting in a way to know that nature is just doing what it normally does, establishing systems that provide some measure of stability and self-regulation, unaided by the hand of man. If I can reach back into a previous life and recall basic system theory, it would be what we used to model as an inherently stable system, with excitations (input signals) and feedback and dampers and time constants, all of which lead to some measure of self-limiting behavior (as long as unaccounted-for phenomena don't upset the balance).

[Plutarch]

Stoat? Never heard of that one before. An unused carnivore name available to be a school mascot!

THE STOAT Mustela erminea

Recognition:

Long slender body with short legs. Medium-short tail (length 95-140mm) always with a black tip. Fur reddish brown to ginger above, white to cream below. Some animals turn white or partially white in winter. Head/body length: Males 275-312 mm; females 242-292 mm. Weight: Males 200-445g; females 140-280g.

General Ecology:

The stoat occurs throughout Britain and Ireland, living in any habitat at any altitude with sufficient ground cover and food. The stoat's presence on offshore islands depends upon prey availability.

Stoats feed mainly on small mammals, especially rabbits and water voles where these are abundant. Small rodents are also taken, supplemented by birds, eggs, fruit and even earthworms when food is scarce. Stoats don't like to be out in the open and so tend to hunt along ditches, hedgerows and walls or through meadows and marshes. They search each likely area systematically, often running in a zig-zag pattern. All but the largest prey is killed by a single bite to the back of the neck.