History of the Golden Hamster: 5. The rejected hamster

Domestication of the Golden Hamster was a contingent event: contingent on Israel Aharoni being asked to collect hamsters to replace the Chinese hamster; contingent on their capture, rearing and breeding; contingent on their suitability as a host for leishmaniasis, and contingent on their attractiveness and suitability as a domestic pet. Had they not been suitable for research on a nasty human disease or unable to be bred in the laboratory they would soon have been discarded by Saul Adler. Indeed that is exactly what happened to another species of hamster collected by Aharoni in Syria for Adler.

The standard animal for leishmaniasis research was the Chinese Hamster. As I wrote previously Adler imported them from the Far East since his animal house was unable to breed them. There has been some discussion of whether Adler knew there were two species, including the Golden Hamster, in the Middle East. However, it is quite clear from from Adler’s account written in 1948 that it was Cricetulus phaeus that he asked Aharoni to bring back alive, a species closely related to the Chinese Hamster (then Cricetulus griseus) and, therefore, perhaps likely to be suitable as a host for Leishmania. This is what Adler wrote:

Prof. Aharoni undertook to bring specimens of Cricetulus phaeus for our work. In addition to getting specimens of Cricetulus phaeus (which were unsatisfactory because they did not breed in captivity), Prof. Aharoni brought back a litter of eight golden hamsters collected near Aleppo…

So, because the Golden Hamster was found easy to breed and to be a suitable host for Leishmania, that species was retained and maintained in Jerusalem. Mesocricetus (then Cricetus) auratus was in: the smaller Cricetulus phaeus was out.

Cricetulus phaeus has now been lumped into Cricetulus migratorius and is known as the Grey (or Gray in the U.S.A.) Dwarf Hamster. It has a wide distribution from Eastern Europe to Mongolia. The Chinese Hamster is now the Striped Dwarf Hamster, Cricetulus barabensis, formerly griseus, found from Russia to Korea and as far south as Shanghai.

Both species have been bred regularly in captivity. Indeed Chinese Hamsters are fairly standard laboratory animals and sometimes seen in pet shops. Why Adler’s animal house was unable to breed either is not known, since the methods of introducing males and females used for Golden Hamsters also work for these much smaller species.

Adler S. 1948. Origin of the Golden Hamster Cricetus auratus as a laboratory animal. Nature 162, 256-257.

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.

Haslauer R. 2017. Family Cricetidae (part). Pp 283-285 in: Wilson DE, Lacher TE, Mittermeier RA (editors). Handbook of Mammals of the World, Volume 7, Rodents II. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.

Hobbs KR. 1987. Hamsters. In, The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory Animals, edited by TB Poole, pp 377-392. Harlow: Longman.

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.