Where does it live in nature? Where do real wild hamsters live? In which zone does a hamster most often live?

Planet Earth is home to a huge number of hamsters and hamsters. They can be found on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica and Australia.

The largest number of varieties of these animals is found in America and on the islands off its coast (subfamily Sigmondontinae) (more about the types of hamsters). African hamsters belong to the subfamily Lophiomyinae, and those living in Eurasia belong to the subfamily Cricetinae, family Cricetidae.

The Central Asian (Syrian) hamster is well known as a pet. In the wild, it lives only in a small area in northwestern Syria.

The animals inhabit various biotypes: forests, forest-steppes, steppes, semi-deserts, deserts, savannas, mountains, shores of reservoirs. Many species settle in close proximity to humans.

On the territory of Russia, mainly in the steppe zone, 12 species of these animals are found.

Rat-like hamsters are common in China. Also found in Russia (Amur Region and Primorsky Territory).

Features of the appearance of hamsters

All hamsters are relatively small, their body length is from 5 cm (in a dwarf hamster) to 30 cm (in an ordinary hamster). The tail can be either barely noticeable or exceeding the length of the body. The animals weigh, depending on the variety, from 7 to 700 grams.

All hamsters have a small compact round body, short paws with sharp claws, small (and in some species quite large) ears, bulging dark eyes, and long mustaches.

The fur of the animals is quite thick, usually soft. The color of the back can be very diverse: from ashy, brown or brown to red, golden or almost black. The abdomen is most often light-colored.

Common hamster in its natural habitat.

A characteristic feature of hamsters is their cheek pouches, which are loose folds of skin starting from the space between the incisors and molars and extending along the outside of the lower jaw. The cheek pouches stretch, allowing the animal to carry a large amount of provisions into its pantries (storages). In nature, such pantries are very useful devices, especially for animals living in places where food appears irregularly, but in large quantities.

The drum hamster has very capacious cheek pouches, which allow it to carry large amounts of food into pantries.

The front legs of these rodents somewhat resemble hands, which allows them to deftly handle food. Hamsters often make characteristic movements of their paws that allow them to squeeze food forward from their cheek pouches.

Hamsters have poor eyesight, but they have a good sense of smell and acute hearing. They communicate with each other using ultrasounds and squeaks, audible to the human ear.

Lifestyle of hamsters in nature

Known to many as pets, hamsters in natural conditions are solitary animals, and at the same time aggressive towards their relatives. This behavior may be the result of constant competition for unevenly distributed but sometimes abundant food resources. Some large species can even attack dogs and people when in danger!

The active life of most of these animals in the wild begins at dusk and continues throughout the night. During the day, rodents rest in burrows. Their burrows are solid buildings with numerous passages, storerooms and nesting chambers.

Some American species are adapted to life in trees. They build complex nests of leaves in a tangle of vines.

The dormouse lives in the rain forests of Central America. He builds nests in trees.

During the cold season, rodents fall into torpor or short-term hibernation - long-term hibernation is not typical for hamsters.

To ensure that provisions are always “at hand,” hamsters stock up seasonally, storing non-perishable seeds and other products in their pantries. They feed on them in the cold winter, when they temporarily emerge from torpor, and also in the spring, when there is still not enough food.

Diet

Hamsters are primarily herbivorous animals. The basis of their diet is seeds, shoots, root vegetables (wheat, barley, millet, peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, beets, etc.), as well as leaves and flowers.

The hamster carries small provisions, such as seeds, into the hole in the cheek pouches, and larger provisions, such as potatoes, in the teeth. It stores food for the winter, eats it underground, or eats it on the spot (in calm conditions). The rat-like hamster, for example, can carry 42 soybeans in its cheek pouches.

Continuation of the family line

Most species reach sexual maturity soon after the end of milk feeding or even earlier. For example, a female common hamster can give birth as early as 59 days old.

Pre-Asian hamsters develop a little more slowly and reach sexual maturity at the age of 57-70 days. In nature, they reproduce 1, less often 2 times a year, in spring and summer, although at home they can bear offspring all year round. Only female rat hamsters in nature can produce 3 litters per year. On average, there are 9-10 cubs in a brood, sometimes up to 22.

In preparation for becoming a mother, the female builds a nest of grass, wool and feathers. Pregnancy lasts from 16 to 20 days (in an ordinary hamster). Babies are born naked and blind.

Courtship is simple and short, like all animals that meet only to continue their race. After mating, the pair splits up, and it is most likely that the male and female will never meet again. The exception is Djungarian hamsters, which are wonderful fathers and even serve as obstetricians to their partners. The father helps the newborns to be born, cleanses them of the remains of the placenta and licks their nostrils to allow them to breathe. He then stays with the female and offspring to keep them warm. When the mother leaves to feed, he stays behind to watch the babies.

In the pre-Asian hamster, the cubs are separated from their mother at the age of three weeks. And the slowest developing species, the mouse-shaped hamster, may not reach adult size even by 6 months.

Enemies in nature

It is not surprising that these small rodents have many enemies in nature. They are hunted by foxes, badgers, ferrets, weasels, stoats, wild dogs, owls, kites and other birds of prey. The nocturnal lifestyle saves hamsters from some dangers, but mostly they have to rely only on caution, camouflage and fast paws. Suspecting something is wrong, the rodent runs to its hole, trying to hide in it as quickly as possible.

Hamsters and humans

For the winter, hamsters store a large amount of food in the storerooms of their burrows (on average 3-15 kg), but due to their relatively low population density, they cause little damage to agriculture.

The history of the relationship between a person and an ordinary hamster is interesting. The number of this species in the 40s of the 20th century was high, although more than a million skins were harvested annually. Since the 70s, a sharp increase in its numbers began, especially in Crimea. By the beginning of the 21st century, it settled on private plots and in city parks, reaching a density unprecedented in nature - 136 individuals per 1 hectare. This species was regularly observed even on the outskirts of Moscow. In Western Europe in the 1970s, in some areas, 15-20 thousand hamsters lived in an area of 1 km2. Obviously, with such a population, the species is a pest, so various methods of destruction were used, starting with pesticides and ending with specially trained dogs to exterminate hamsters. As a result, the species has virtually disappeared in recent years. Today it is under strict protection in many European countries, but its numbers have not been restored.

Most other hamster species are not endangered, probably because they live in sparsely populated areas and have a high reproduction rate.

In contact with

Common wild hamster ( Cricetus cricetus) is the only true representative of its kind of Hamster family and lives free in its natural habitat. The peculiarities of its appearance and life activity, as well as the possibility of keeping it at home, are discussed further in the article.

What does a wild hamster look like?

The wild hamster has the following distinctive features:

body length reaches 27-34 cm;
average weight – 700 grams;
muzzle of moderate length;
the ears are relatively short, covered with thin dark hair;
the tail is thick at the base, tapering towards the end, 3-8 cm long. Covered with short, stiff hair;
the hand and foot are wide, the fingers have developed claws;
limbs are short. Sometimes it seems that the hamster is crawling;
The body hair is dense but soft.

The color of the animal is yellow or reddish-brown with black undercoat. There is a black and white pattern on the body. The abdomen is black, on the sides there are light spots separated by black areas. There are light spots behind the ears, on the sides of the head (may be in the area of the shoulder blades).

There are exclusively black specimens (melanists), some black with white spots on the paws and throat. The color becomes lighter in the direction from north to south within the range.

Did you know? According to a translation from the ancient Avestan languagethe word "hamster" means "an enemy who throws to the ground." To pick up seeds, rodents bend plant stems to the ground.

Where do hamsters live in the wild?

The hamster prefers meadows, mixed-grass steppes and forest-steppes. The distribution area extends from Southern and Central Europe in the west to the Minusinsk steppe zone in the east, and in the south it descends to Northwestern China. There is an expansion of the range due to the destruction of forests.

The animal does not climb high into the mountains; the maximum height above sea level where it can be found is 1.5 kilometers. The hamster does not shy away from human proximity; it can make a home in the garden, vegetable garden, and sometimes in residential premises.

Lifestyle and character

The animal is endowed with decent size and reaches the dimensions of a large rat. Leads a solitary, more twilight lifestyle, likes to make new passages in its burrow, and stores food for the winter.

He loves dry, sandy soils of steppes and forest-steppe areas, where it does not cost him much effort to dig underground passages in a hole. It is also often found in meadow and agricultural areas, and can adapt to existence in mountain areas.

In the cold winter, it hides in a deep burrow underground (where there are storage rooms and bedrooms) and hibernates, but can wake up to eat. For convenience, the hamster lines the burrow chambers with grass, which it replaces as it becomes dirty.

What does a common hamster eat?

The animal has an excellent appetite and is not picky about food, but plant-based food prevails in its diet. In the spring and summer, the hamster loves to feast on insects and their larvae, and does not disdain small mice, reptiles, and amphibians (small vertebrates).

In autumn-winter, it switches to food from various types of seeds and tubers, the reserves of which are in sufficient quantities (from 0.5 to 16 kg) in its bins. In some cases, storerooms with supplies up to 90 kg were discovered.

The granaries are dominated by grains of wheat, rice, millet, buckwheat, lentils, lupine, as well as potatoes, carrots, peas, and corn. The animal feeds on them during temporary wakefulness from hibernation and early spring until young green shoots appear.

Special pouches behind the hamster’s cheeks are designed for short-term storage of food. He is able to carry about 50 grams of grains (other food) to his home at a distance of more than a kilometer, supporting the bags with his front paws, and with them he takes food out of them.

Often the cheeks hang down to the animal’s shoulders due to the overfilling of the sacs.
The hardworking, thrifty hamster also separates the grains by variety and puts each one separately.

The process of absorbing food occurs while sitting on its hind legs, and the hamster eats with its front legs: it stuffs food into one cheek, then the other, and quickly chews the contents.

Did you know? The common hamster is an excellent swimmer. The cheek pouches filled with air help him a lot when swimming.

Reproduction

The lifespan of the described animal reaches four years in natural conditions, and six in captivity.

The breeding season begins in April and ends in October. The female is ready for mating at the age of 2.5–3 months. Since the embryos stay in the mother’s womb for only 16 days, during the specified period of time the female manages to bear 2-3 offspring.
The number of babies varies from 8 to 20, but more often it stops at 10. Males appear in females’ burrows only for mating, immediately leave their partner and do not take part in raising the offspring. Newborns weigh only 4–6 grams.

Babies develop extremely quickly. The lactation period lasts 3 weeks, but after a week the cubs are able to eat solid food (for example, grass). Two-week-old hamsters open their eyes and become covered with dense fur. The mother is responsible for the safety of the children.

In case of danger, the female carries the babies to a safe place in the cheek pouches.

It is not uncommon for first litter cubs to give birth to their babies by the end of summer.

Conservation status

Until 1960, the soft-haired animal was the object of the fur trade in Czechoslovakia, Germany and the USSR. A sharp decline in numbers forced the cessation of fur harvesting in the middle of the 20th century. Western European countries have approved national programs to ensure the conservation of this species.
These include Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Belarus and Ukraine. It is also protected in five constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The number of animals is unchanged in Siberia and Kazakhstan, and the number of animals in the Krasnodar Territory and Azov District of the Rostov Region causes significant damage to agriculture. Although the total number of the species continues to decrease.

Did you know? Smart hamsters can remember their name and perform some tricks.

Is it possible to keep in captivity?

The common hamster is extremely unpretentious. A low, medium-sized cage made of metal is quite suitable for him, while a wooden cage will not resist a gnawing animal. Liberation threatens you with damaged furniture, chewed up books, shoes, and clothes.
The animal arranges the comfort in its home according to its taste and the level of illumination of the room. The dark place will belong to the rest area, the light place to the toilet, and opposite it he will arrange a pantry (often next to the nest).

He will do the rest himself, just put pieces of fabric, cardboard, soft paper. All you need to do is cover the floor with fine sawdust.

Omnivorous hamsters, in addition to grains and tubers at home, like to enjoy bread, lean boiled meat (raw is not allowed), sometimes you can offer unsalted lard. Add oil solutions of vitamins A, D, E to food once a week, a drop per animal.

For convenience, install a feeder and drinker. Change the water to clean water daily.

Place the sleeping house in a secluded place in your home - make it from a wooden box with a side entrance corresponding to the size of the hamster, or use an inverted, overstuffed clay flower pot.
Thrifty hamsters continue to organize food warehouses, even when there is no need for this. Feeders filled with provisions are emptied not only during feeding, but also by putting what they need into the pantry.

Sooner or later, every rodent owner has a question: where do hamsters live in the wild? Sitting in a cage, this is such a cute creature, clumsy and funny. Always knows how to lighten the mood. We feed him and take care of him, clean his cage and play with him. But before, the animal lived in the wild, where there were many dangers. He looked for his own food, hunted and dug holes. Do you know that a wild hamster digs holes for many meters? This is a dangerous animal that is not afraid of its opponent and does not look at its size.

Hamster in the wild

Different types of rodents live in different areas. We will talk about some of them today in this article. They mainly live in the foothills, meadows and steppes.
Where do Djungarian hamsters live? They live in central Asia, southern Siberia, and Northeastern Kazakhstan. This animal lives in the mountains on rocky plains. Its dimensions are small, about 10 centimeters. He makes burrows in voids among stones. During the winter, his weight increases, since the rodent stores fat, which warms him in cold weather and gives him a supply of energy. He also fills his pantry with food for winter. Plunging into hibernation, it can wake up in order to refresh itself. And it occurs when the temperature drops below 10 degrees.
When frost comes, they understand it. Before falling asleep, they block the entrance to their burrow from the inside. But at first they do not sleep, they simply become less active in anticipation of winter.
The lifespan of a hamster in the wild is less than in captivity, approximately 1.5 years. Various dangers await him there: hunger, enemies, disease, harsh weather, etc. Everything is simpler in a cage; it is possible to live to old age.

Hamster story

The first known wild hamsters can be traced to countries such as Syria, Belgium, parts of northern China, Greece and Romania. Living alone in the desert, these small rodents made their homes in warm, dry places such as deserts and sand dunes.

Hamsters brought from Syria to the United States back in 1936 are known to be some of the first domesticated hamster species, according to the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association. Interestingly, the word "hamster" comes from the German word "hamstern", which means "to lay". This is a handy description of how these little creatures store food not only in their homes, but also in the way they pee food into pouches on their cheeks.

Characteristics of Hamsters

Like other rodents, hamsters are characterized by their small bodies, short tails and tiny ears. Their fur comes in a wide range of colors and shades, including black, yellow, white, brown, gray or a mixture of these colors.

There are currently about twenty-four species of hamsters, which vary in size. For example, European varieties can measure over 13 inches in length. On the opposite side of the spectrum, so-called dwarf hamsters can only grow two to four inches. The species most commonly purchased as a pet, the Syrian/teddy bear/golden hamster varieties, typically reach about six inches in length.
Hamsters can be gentle by nature, but are known to bite, especially when they are scared o

R suddenly woke up. Small rodents also must cope with poor eyesight, which forces them to rely on their sense of smell, which is used to gather scent from their scent tracks located on their backs.

Hamster behavior

As nocturnal animals, hamsters prefer to be active at night. Wild hamsters dig a series of tunnels that provide them with enough living space to spend most of their time. The tunnels also serve to store food and environment large enough for breeding purposes. Living underground also provides small rodents with cooler temperatures in hot climates. When it gets too cold, outside wild hamsters will choose to winter in their carefully constructed tunnels.

In terms of getting along with each other, some species of hamsters, such as the dwarf, are social, while others, such as the Syrians, are territorial and prefer to be solitary.

Hamster diet

Wild hamsters have a diet consisting of small animals such as frogs, lizards and a variety of insects.

Hamster conservation

In Syria, the wild golden hamster has been classified as vulnerable to extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List. One of the main reasons for this status is human intervention in the habitats of local hamsters.
It is important to remember that a domesticated hamster cannot survive on its own and cannot be returned to the wild.

A wild hamster in its natural environment does not live as long as its domestic counterpart. This is due to more severe living conditions, which daily force these small animals to struggle with a number of negative external factors. They have many enemies: foxes, ferrets, kites, weasels. And this is not the entire list. And farmers have a negative attitude towards them, since with their raids in search of food they cause significant damage to agricultural land.

Description

Hamsters are mammals from the order Rodents and the Hamster family. There are about 19 species of wild hamsters, differing in appearance and size. The smallest representative has a body length that does not exceed 5 cm, and the largest - 35 cm.

The body is dense, the head is small, with a sharp muzzle and mustache. They have 16 teeth that do not stop growing throughout their lives. Therefore, they mercilessly grind them off on various hard objects.

Young animals have soft and silky fur, but with age it begins to coarse. Color may vary:

sandy;
creamy;
brown;
golden;
gray;
white.

Black hamsters are rare.

A characteristic feature of all species is the presence of capacious cheek pouches in which the animals hide food.

In wild hamsters, females look much more respectable than males. These rodents are excellent swimmers and divers.

Wild hamsters have a fairly extensive habitat, covering Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, as well as Syria, South Korea, Iran, China and Mongolia, Siberia. Mostly animals live in steppes, forests, and deserts. Some species rise high into the mountains, up to 2.5 thousand meters above sea level. Rodents love to nest near human settlements.

The most common types of hamsters are shown in the table.

Name	Description and habitat	Photos of species representatives
Steppe or ordinary	The most aggressive representative, capable of attacking even larger animals and humans. They often attack their brothers during the mating season in order to eliminate their rival. They lead a nocturnal life, and during the day they hide in underground passages, at a depth of up to 1.5 meters. In their lair they are able to collect quite substantial reserves of food, about 90 kg. This is quite understandable, since for the winter they settle in a hole without leaving. This hamster zealously protects his personal possessions from any encroachment from the outside. Females and males settle separately
Forest	Despite this name, these hamsters live not only in forests, but also in deserts and prairies. Often found near human habitation, in gardens and vegetable gardens. They do not have a single way of life: they live in pairs and alone, they sleep and are awake at different times. When near humans, hamsters prefer to sleep during the day and at night steal brush and build nests for themselves. They are usually located on trees. They do not hibernate during the winter, but can become numb.
Field	Found in Canada, Ecuador and Colombia. They mainly settle in the thickets of tropical forests, avoiding agricultural lands. Sometimes found in swampy areas and prairies. They have an unusual multi-colored color. The tail is covered with small scales below and fluffy above. The body is from 5 to 20 cm long, depending on age
Dzungarian	The most studied species, which is most often subjected to domestication. Habitat: Central and Central Asia, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan. They were spotted in Altai. They prefer steppe and semi-desert areas. They are small in size: body length is about 10 cm. They are active at dusk and at night. They dig intricate labyrinthine holes with several entrances. They don’t sleep in winter, sometimes they jump outside to get food.
Syrian (golden)	It has a dense build, with a body length of up to 15 cm, a tail of 1.5-2 cm. It can be golden or light cream in color with a whitish belly. The weight of an adult reaches 130 grams. They live about 4 years. They live in Siberia and Turkey. Due to its limited range, the population is included in the Red Book

Lifestyle and nutrition

A characteristic feature of all hamsters is their solitary existence. Females and males live separately and only unite at the time of mating. Each has its own territory, which they jealously protect from the invasion of their own kind. Rodents dig holes for themselves in the form of long and intricate labyrinths underground, sometimes with a total length of up to three meters, and equip several spacious compartments there. They store food in them. This is how they prepare for non-stop living during the winter.

All hamsters are very thrifty and in the fall they fill their storage rooms with a fairly impressive amount of food (up to 90 kg). In Korea and China, poor people conduct a special search for hamster holes in order to collect grain for food.

The diet of hamsters includes both plant and animal foods., depends on the habitat. If there are grain fields nearby, then they will eat mainly grain.

Hamsters do not disdain insects and dead animals. If hamster settlements are located near summer cottages, then the menu is dominated by vegetables and other crops grown in gardens. Only they are not suitable as a winter reserve, so hamsters have to periodically raid barns in search of grain. In a particularly hungry year, there are cases of rodent attacks on chickens.

Hamsters eat:

berries;
young shoots of trees;
foliage and plant roots;
fruits;
seeds and grains;
wheat, corn;
potato tubers, carrots, cabbage, beets;
legumes;
insects: locusts, grasshoppers, moths, ants, caterpillars, earthworms.

The animals usually go out for prey at night. Their taste preferences may vary depending on the species and place of residence. Thus, dormouse hamsters love to eat avocados and bananas, and mouse-like hamsters love pistachios.

Membranaceae periodically feed on seafood:

crayfish;
shellfish;
crabs;
fish.

Many species, such as the common hamster, hibernate for about five cold months. Only when very hungry do they wake up to refresh themselves and fall asleep again. As a result of their metabolism slowing down during this period, they are able to easily survive the harsh winter. Others continue to lead an active lifestyle and periodically go to the surface for food. Awakening usually occurs in February, when the ground thaws.

Getting out doesn't happen right away. For about a month, the underground inhabitants still sit in their burrows, eating up the remaining supplies. Only after a month do they open the passages. Immediately after hibernation, hamsters begin to collect preserved seeds and grains in the fields, then the turn of young shoots comes. The animals are not averse to tasting meat if weakened or wounded animals are encountered along the way.

They themselves do not hunt, with the exception of steppe hamsters. These are the most aggressive members of the family, and sometimes they even attack rabbits.

The lifespan of rodents is determined not only by living conditions, but also by belonging to a particular species. On average, the period varies from 2 to 7 years. In the wild, most die prematurely, as they become prey to large predators and birds: foxes, gray herons, kites, badgers, owls. There are frequent cases of their young being eaten by rooks and crows.

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