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European hamster
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Cricetidae
Subfamily:	Cricetinae
Genus:	Cricetus Leske, 1779
Species:	C. cricetus
Binomial name
Cricetus cricetus (Linnaeus, 1758)
European Hamster range
Synonyms[2]
List Cricetus albus Fitzinger, 1867 Cricetus babylonicus Nehring, 1903 Cricetus canescens Nehring, 1899 Cricetus frumentarius Pallas, 1811 Cricetus fulvus Bechstein, 1801 Cricetus fuscidorsis Argyropulo, 1932 Cricetus germanicus Kerr, 1792 Cricetus jeudii Gray, 1873 Cricetus latycranius Ognev, 1923 Cricetus nehringi' Matschie, 1901 Cricetus niger Fitzinger, 1867 Cricetus nigricans Lacépède, 1799 Cricetus polychroma Krulikovski, 1916 Cricetus rufescens Nehring, 1899 Cricetus stavropolicus Satunin, 1907 Cricetus tauricus Ognev, 1924 Cricetus tomensis Ognev, 1924 Cricetus varius Fitzinger, 1867 Cricetus vulgaris Geoffroy, 1803 Mus cricetus Linnaeus, 1758

The European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), also known as the Eurasian hamster,^[3]black-bellied hamster^[4] or common hamster,^[5][6][7] is the only species of the genus Cricetus.^[2] It is native to a large range in Eurasia, extending from Belgium to the Altai mountains and Yenisey River in Russia.^[8] Where abundant the animal is widely considered a farmland pest, and it has also been trapped for its fur. Across its global range, it is considered of least concern, but in many individual Western European countries it is considered critically endangered. Cricetus is also a monotypic genus.

Description

Skeleton

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 or dwarf hamsters, which are commonly kept as pets. It weighs 220–460 g (7.8–16.2 oz) and can grow to 20–35 cm (8–14 in) long with a tail of 40–60 mm (1.6–2.4 in). Its dental formula is 1.0.0.31.0.0.3.

Behavioural

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. These may be quite large and may consist of a total of 65 kg of food.^[9] It hibernates between October and March. During this time, it wakes every five to seven days to feed from the storage chambers. 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. They are usually solitary animals.^[9]

Distribution

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.

In captivity, the European hamster has an unusually long lifespan, living up to eight years.

The Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Union's highest court, ruled in 2011 that France had failed to protect the European hamster.^[10] The court said that if France did not adjust its agricultural and urbanization policies sufficiently to protect it, the government would be subject to fines of up to $24.6 million.^{[11][needs update]}

References

See also

• 
  Media related to Cricetus cricetus at Wikimedia Commons


• 
  Data related to Cricetus cricetus at Wikispecies