European hamster

Appearance

The colour of the body fur varies from being black on the belly, brown on the back, as well as white and cream on the nose, paws, cheeks, neck, and behind the forelimbs, with some rare colour variation being known. The fur is moulted once per year.The upper lip has numerous whiskers each 3.2–6.5 centimetres (1.3–2.6 in) long, around 30 on each side in 4-5 rows, with additional whiskers among them two above each eye, and a number of others on the upper forelimb (antebrachium). The snout is blunt, with the skull among them the zygomatic arches being robustly constructed, while the lower jaw is slender, with the mandibular symphysis (the connection between the two halves of the lower jaws) being unossified, allowing each half of the lower jaw to move separately.

The European hamster is the largest living hamster, reaching up to 20 to 30 centimetres (7.9 to 11.8 in) in length, with a relatively short tail around 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) long, with a body mass typically around 200 to 650 grams (7.1 to 22.9 oz), though exceptionally body masses of over 1 kg (2.2 lb) have been recorded.

Range and habitat

It is typically found in lowland areas with loam or loess-like soil and permeable bedrock below 500 metres (1,600 ft) altitude, naturally in relatively dry steppe or forest steppe like habitats though it also inhabits similar human-modified habitat such as crop fields, with some tolerance for boreal forest and semi-desert. It is found from Belgium and Alsace in eastern France in the west, to Russia and northwest Xinjiang, in China in the east, and Bulgaria in the south, between 44°-59° N and the 5°-95° E. A significant population is found in Vienna Central Cemetery in Austria.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

The common hamster is often described as a nocturnal or crepuscular species, but it is also known to sometimes be active during the daytime. The vast majority of its diet is herbivorous, comprising various vegetable matter among them seeds, legumes, root vegetables and grasses, with a small part (10-13%) of its diet being from animal sources like earthworms, snails and insects.

European hamsters do not typically need to drink as they are generally capable of getting the necessary water from their diet alone. During this time, it wakes every five to seven days to feed from the storage chambers. The breeding season of European hamsters lasts for about 5 months.

In crisis

Its population has declined drastically in recent years and is now considered critically endangered. The main threats to the species are thought to be intensive agriculture, habitat destruction, and persecution by farmers. From the mid 20th century, even so, their population has begun to decline.

In 2020, the European hamster was classified as critically endangered across its global range on the IUCN Red List. It has been linked especially to habitat loss due to intensive agricultural practices and the building of roads that fragment populations, and to climate change, the historical fur trapping and to pollution. Even light pollution appears to significantly reduce local populations, unless counterbalanced by other factors.

European hamster is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on European hamster, Wikidata item Q208077. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.