The European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), also known as the Eurasian hamster,[1] black-bellied hamster[2] or common hamster,[3] [4] is the only species of hamster in the genus Cricetus. It is native to grassland and similar habitats in a large part of Eurasia, extending from Belgium to the Altai Mountains and Yenisey River in Russia.[5] Historically, it was considered a farmland pest and had been trapped for its fur. Its population has declined drastically in recent years and is now considered critically endangered.[6] The main threats to the species are thought to be intensive agriculture, habitat destruction, and persecution by farmers.
The European hamster has brown dorsal fur with white patches. The chest and belly are black. The tail is short and furred. It is much larger than the Syrian (Mesocricetus auratus) or dwarf hamsters (Phodopus sp.), which are commonly kept as pets, and is the largest known species of hamster. It weighs 220– and can grow to 20– long with a tail of 4–. Its dental formula is . In captivity, the European hamster has an unusually long lifespan for a rodent, living up to eight years.
The common hamster is a nocturnal or crepuscular species. It lives in a complex burrow system. It eats seeds, legumes, root vegetables, grasses and insects. It transports its food in its elastic cheek pouches to the food storage chambers. The storage chambers may be quite large and on average contain of food, but exceptionally can be up to .[7] It hibernates between October and March. During this time, it wakes every five to seven days to feed from the storage chambers. They are usually solitary animals.
The adults reach sexual maturity when they are about 43 days old and breed from early April to August. The gestation period is 18–20 days and the size of the litter ranges from three to 15 young, which are weaned when aged three weeks.
It is typically found in low-lying farmland with soft loam or loess soils, although it may also inhabit meadows, gardens or hedges. It is found from Belgium and Alsace in the west, to Russia in the east, and Bulgaria in the south. A significant population is found in Vienna Central Cemetery in Austria.
The Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Union's highest court, ruled in 2011 that France had failed to protect the European hamster.[8] The government would be subject to fines of up to $24.6 million if France did not adjust its agricultural and urbanisation policies sufficiently to protect it.[9] By 2014, France had started a captive-breeding programme, which aimed to release 500 European hamsters each year into fields that farmers were paid not to harvest.[10]
In 2020, the European hamster was classified as critically endangered across its global range on the IUCN Red List. The reasons for its drastic decline are not fully understood. 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. Agriculture, development, and persecution are thought to be the biggest threats to the species.
A significant benefit to existing conservation programs is that the European hamster breeds readily in captivity; captive breeding programs for the species exist in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere.[11]