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

The genus, Mesocricetus, to which the Golden or Syrian Hamster is assigned has, at present, four recognised species living in south-eastern Europe and the Middle East.

I have scanned, separated and labelled the illustrations of the four species in Volume 7 of Handbook of Mammals of the World (a superb series now completed in nine volumes—a true work of scholarship and a publishing triumph for Lynx Edicions). The species in some respects are similar but there are distinct morphological and genetic differences. Experiments on sexual preferences have shown that individuals do recognise potential mates of their own species. They seem to good and proper ‘biological species’ although it remains possible that one of them may be ‘split’ at some time as more data accumulate.

Illustrations extracted from Volume 7 of Mammals of the World
The Golden Hamster is also known as the Syrian Hamster and
Brandt's Hamster as the Turkish Hamster

All are solitary, building burrows in a mixture of open habitats often including agricultural fields. The burrows vary in detail but a vertical or near vertical shaft leads from the entrance to a horizontal shaft from which lead food stores, nest chamber and latrines. The nest chamber may be deep—as the labourers found when digging out the nest of a Golden Hamster in 1930.

The propensity of hamsters to eat agricultural crops and their rapid rate of reproduction (females mature at four weeks and can produce a litter averaging nine pups per month) have led to some being considered as agricultural pests in the past.

They feed variously on seeds, green vegetation and tubers along with insects. The massive cheek pouches which extend down each side of the body can be stuffed with food during forays to the surface and then emptied, using pressure from the paws, into underground caches. Time spent on the surface and exposure to predators is, therefore, minimised. Hamstering is a good term to describe hotel guests who stuff their bags with food from the breakfast buffet before they set off for a day with lunch not provided—and for some guests even when it is.

The ranges of the species are shown below:

Distribution of the four species of Mesocricetus. Modified from Yigit et al.
The range of M. brandti extends to north-west Iran

The current conservation status varies from ‘Least Concern’ (M. raddei) through ‘Near-Threatened’ (M. brandti and M.newtoni) to ‘Vulnerable’ (M. auratus), the latter on grounds of small range, habitat loss and population decline.

Kryštufek B. 2017. Family Cricetidae (part). Pp 282-283 in: Wilson DE, Lacher TE, Mittermeier RA (editors). Handbook of Mammals of the World, Volume 7, Rodents II. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.

Yigit N, Çolak E, Gattermann R, Neumann K, Özkurt, S ,Gharkeloo MM, Fritzsche P,  Çolak R. 2006. Morphological and Biometrical Comparisons of Mesocricetus Nehring, 1898 (Mammalia: Rodentia) species distributed in the Palaearctic Region. Turkish Journal of Zoology 30, 291-299.