Hamsters: Home, Range and History

An overview of the golden hamster Mesocricetus auratus in the Levant and the broader context of the pet trade, laboratory rodents, and wild rodent relationships to farmers and agriculture.

1. About the golden hamster https://www.gbif.org/species/2438482

See a hamster yawn

Hamsters run

Hamster heartbeat

Hamster senses - great sense of smell, low vision

How much they sleep, and why during the day

How cold or hot they get

Where hamsters live

Some of their neighbours in each country

Hamsters mark their burrows through scenting with feces.

Hamster social dimensions

What hamsters like to eat (Syria flora)

Mating habits

Golden hamsters can be found in the mountainous areas around Jerusalem, where they are listed as vulnerable in terms of conservation status.

2021: A new locality record for the Syrian hamster, Mesocricetus auratus

Burrow structure

How they get water

What niche they occupy

What kind of food would they get, specifically, in their homeland? Why would they be adapted to forage the way they do?

Distribution and habitat Gattermann et al. (2001)

The Spatial Niche and Influencing Factors of Desert Rodents

(PDF) Foraging behavior of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) in the wild

The Effects of Individual and Environmental Variation on a Food Hoarding Rodent’s Stored Resources

Notes on the current distribution and the ecology of wild golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) | Journal of Zoology | Cambridge Core

https://jo.opensooq.com/en/pets/hamsters

Additional hamsters to consider

Mesocricetus brandti (listed in Mammals of the Holy Land as the local subspecies)

Mesocricetus auratus

Mesocricetus migratorius

In central and southern Syria, the grey hamster, Cricetulus migratorius, is common. Palestine Wildlife Society lists them as living in East Jerusalem to Jericho.

Fossils and foraging

Geologic/evolutionary scale: Fossil hamsters and Quaternary micromammals

Prehistoric Rodents of the Middle East | SpringerLink

Test Excavations at Wadi Zarqa Maʿin 1, a Natural Sinkhole Faunal Trap Site, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Zoology Jottings: History of the Golden Hamster: 4. Closely-related hamster species

A History of the Animal World in the Ancient Near East

Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation in Palestine | SpringerLink

Distribution of Owls in Syria

Queens of the Night, the Owls of Iraq and Syria - Species, Current Distribution, and Conservation Status | IntechOpen

Food of the Barn Owl Tyto alba in Southern Syria

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/isez/azc/2005/00000048/F0020001/art00004#

https://platform.almanhal.com/Files/Articles/56270

https://kezana.ai//Reader/Articles/56270

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57570-0_2

Historical note from Siberia: foragers used to eat hamster caches!Gathering Food from Rodent Nests in Siberia - Sabira Ståhlberg, Ingvar Svanberg, 2010

Politics and farmers

ICARDA and hamsters

Agricultural areas marked by water issues and pesticide usage

One seed at a time: Lebanese project promotes agroecology for farmer autonomy

Rodent Pests of Agriculture and Their Control in the Near East Region

The Local Origins of Domestication (Chapter 1) - Biodiversity in Agriculture

Laboratories

Anatomy, Physiology, and Husbandry of Laboratory Animals

History of laboratory science in 1970s

This volume is gratefully dedicated to the three Syrian hamsters originally captured by Aharoni near Beirut in 1930, the ancestors of most Syrian hamsters now used in biomedical laboratories throughout the world, and to Julius Alexander Rippel, whose generous, spontaneous intervention in 1970 rescued the inbred BIO hamsters from certain extinction. The Symposium on The Syrian Hamster in Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Research, on which the present volume is based, would not have been possible without the financial support of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, Morristown, N.J.; Bio-Research Consultants, Inc., and several of its clients, wishing to remain anonymous.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180719000201id_/https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/402079

Adler and Theodor in the US

Compellingly high SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility of Golden Syrian hamsters suggests multiple zoonotic infections of pet hamsters during the COVID-19 pandemic | Scientific Reports

The Golden Hamster: A Valuable Model for Designing Cancer Therapies

Hawkey's Atlas of Wild and Exotic Animal Haematology

Laboratory Hamsters 1987 Hoosier and McPherson

The Clinical Chemistry of Laboratory Hamsters

6. "Domestication"

https://www.instagram.com/pamperedpetjordan/

Domesticated animals and cultivated plants | SpringerLink

7. Other rodents and Palestine

How did capybaras get to Palestine? Look at website Mahmiyat.ps for endangered and introduced rodents in Palestine

8. Owls and Israel

An unlikely symbol of cooperation, the barn owl unites Jordanian and Israeli scientists | The Times of Israel

9: A small detour on the European hamster and the European hedgehog

Why is there so much conservation biology on Cricetus cricetus? Why are European hedgehogs and hamsters (more) protected from trafficking for the pet trade whilst African and Asian animals are not?

Friend or foe? Engaging public can save the critically endangered common hamster (Cricetus cricetus)