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Cricetus cricetusblack-bellied hamster

By Sierra Lippert

Ge­o­graphic Range

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters (Crice­tus crice­tus) have a wide ge­o­graphic range through­out the Paleartic re­gion, but are found mostly in cen­tral and east­ern Eu­rope. In Eu­rope they span as far west as north­ern France, Bel­gium and the Nether­lands. They span north through Ger­many and Be­larus, all the way to Bul­garia and Ukraine in the south. Their range ex­tends as far east as the Yenisey river (Asian Rus­sia). The ma­jor­ity of their lat­i­tu­di­nal ex­pan­sion is in the east, from Rus­sia in the north to China in the south. (Nowak, 1999; Pan­teleyev, 1998; Reznik, et al., 1978; Surov, et al., 2016)

Habi­tat

The nat­ural habi­tat of Eu­ro­pean ham­sters con­sists of steppe and grass­land, but they have ex­panded their range and now in­habit agri­cul­tural lands and some green patches in urban areas. Their bur­rows are typ­i­cally ex­ten­sive and occur in dense loess or clay soils. They live in areas no more than 400 m above sea level. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Tissier, et al., 2017)

  • Average elevation
    400 m
    1312.34 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters have stocky bod­ies cov­ered in red­dish-brown to grey­ish-brown fur on their lat­eral and dor­sal sides. Their snouts, lips, throats, cheeks and feet are white and their ven­tral sur­face is black, hence the name they are some­times called: black-bel­lied ham­sters. They have promi­nent, dark eyes and broad, oblique nos­trils that run cau­dally. Their den­ti­tion con­sists of in­cisors and mo­lars only, with a den­tal for­mula of 1/1, 0/0, 0/0, 3/3. Their fa­cial whiskers are straight and stiff and occur in up to 30 brown or white hairs on each side. The soles of their forefeet have five pads, while their hind­feet are much longer and have six pads. Their ears are dor­so­me­di­ally di­rected and av­er­age at a length of 2.3 to 3.2 cm. They have short tails mea­sur­ing 3 to 6 cm in length, with hairs shorter than those on the rest of their bod­ies. Males have an av­er­age mass of 451 g while fe­males av­er­age 359 g. Adult males have an av­er­age length of 24.1 cm while fe­males av­er­age ap­prox­i­mately 23.7 cm. (Nowak, 1999; Reznik, et al., 1978)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    359 to 451 g
    12.65 to 15.89 oz
  • Range length
    23.7 to 24.1 cm
    9.33 to 9.49 in
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    1.251 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Com­mon ham­sters have a promis­cu­ous mat­ing sys­tem with mul­ti­ple mat­ings per breed­ing sea­son. To at­tract a mate, fe­males will run in fig­ure eights. In­ter­ested males run close be­hind and pro­duce mat­ing calls with in­creas­ing vol­ume. Eu­ro­pean ham­sters cop­u­late mul­ti­ple times be­fore mat­ing is fin­ished. (Reznik, et al., 1978)

Each lit­ter con­sists of 3 to 7 al­tri­cial pups who are born with their eyes closed. Fe­males can mate again shortly after giv­ing birth to their first lit­ter, which means it is pos­si­ble for them to be preg­nant while still pro­vid­ing milk for their first lit­ter. Preg­nancy lasts 18 to 21 days and ba­bies are weaned for up to 30 days. (Gad, 2014; Reznik, et al., 1978)

  • Key Reproductive Features
  • gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
  • sexual
  • viviparous
  • Breeding interval
    Females can have up to three litters in one breeding season, with the first arriving in mid-May.
  • Breeding season
    The breeding season of European hamsters often begins in March to May and extends as long as August.
  • Range number of offspring
    3 to 7
  • Average number of offspring
    7
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    18 to 21 days
  • Range weaning age
    21 to 20 days
  • Average weaning age
    28 days
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    80 to 90 days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    60 days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    56 days
    AnAge

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion about male parental care in Eu­ro­pean ham­sters. How­ever it is thought to be lit­tle to none, due to their promis­cu­ous mat­ing sys­tem. How­ever, moth­ers will nurse their young for about 4 weeks and are ex­tremely ter­ri­to­r­ial, which is a form of off­spring pro­tec­tion ag­gres­sion. (Reznik, et al., 1978)

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • female parental care
  • pre-fertilization
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Ham­sters live sig­nif­i­cantly shorter lives in cap­tiv­ity be­cause they do not hi­ber­nate. (Reznik, et al., 1978)

Be­hav­ior

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters are noc­tur­nal, soli­tary bur­row­ing ro­dents whose be­hav­ior is sea­son­ally de­pen­dent. In late sum­mer they start build­ing up body fat re­serves and their dor­sal fur dark­ens for hi­ber­na­tion, which oc­curs from mid-Oc­to­ber to mid-March. They hi­ber­nate in a curled po­si­tion with out­stretched forelegs and wake up every 5 to 7 days to feed. Dur­ing hi­ber­na­tion, they can be found in their bur­rows as far as 2 m below ground as op­posed to being found 30 to 60 cm deep in sum­mer. They cre­ate ex­tremely ex­ten­sive tun­nels con­sist­ing of dwelling, food stor­age, and la­trine cham­bers. Their tun­nels typ­i­cally have a di­am­e­ter of 8 to 9 cm with sev­eral exits. They are per­ceived to be highly adap­tive, due to their di­etary op­por­tunism and abil­ity to bur­row in urban set­tings. They use their cheek pouches to trans­port food back to their bur­rows. They are very ag­gres­sive to­wards mem­bers of their own species ex­cept dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Nowak, 1999; Reznik, et al., 1978; Tissier, et al., 2019)

  • Range territory size
    2,200 to 18,500 m^2

Home Range

Males on av­er­age oc­cupy a larger ter­ri­tory (1.85 ha) than fe­males (0.22 ha) (Reznik, et al., 1978; Tissier, et al., 2017; Ul­brich and Kayser, 2004)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

They use vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion, vo­cal­iza­tions, se­cre­tions, and touch to com­mu­ni­cate with each other. For ex­am­ple, dur­ing breed­ing sea­son, fe­males run in fig­ure eights while males make mat­ing calls with in­creas­ing vol­ume be­fore mat­ing.

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters also pro­duce se­cre­tions from their flank or­gans to mark their ter­ri­to­ries. Some of their ag­gres­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­sists of grunt­ing, spit­ting and mob­bing. When fight­ing, Eu­ro­pean ham­sters will wres­tle, stand on their hind legs, jump and bite. (Reznik, et al., 1978; Tissier, et al., 2019)

Food Habits

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters are re­ported to be grani­vores/her­bi­vores, be­cause they eat grasses, seeds, grains, roots, fruits, and legumes. How­ever, they op­por­tunis­ti­cally eat in­sects and in­sect lar­vae. (Reznik, et al., 1978; Tissier, et al., 2017; Tissier, et al., 2019)

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • roots and tubers
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of Eu­ro­pean ham­sters in the wild in­clude birds of prey, foxes, stoats, and bad­gers. In urban re­gions they are also preyed upon by feral cats and dogs. Eu­ro­pean ham­sters are cre­pus­cu­lar and seden­tary, so they are usu­ally safe from preda­tors until they leave their bur­rows. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Tissier, et al., 2019)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters are pri­mar­ily her­bi­vores and con­sume pro­duc­ers. They serve as prey to many car­ni­vores in their habi­tats and also serve as ecosys­tem en­gi­neers through their bur­row­ing. They are also seed dis­persers, since they store seeds in their bur­rows and oc­ca­sion­ally lose them. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Tissier, et al., 2019)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters have been hunted or sold for their pelts. They also have been used for can­cer re­search, due to their ex­po­sure to pes­ti­cides and air pol­lu­tion in urban set­tings. (Gad, 2014; Reznik, et al., 1978)

  • Positive Impacts
  • body parts are source of valuable material
  • research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Eu­ro­pean ham­sters are known to be agri­cul­tural pests. They can be ter­ri­to­r­ial and at­tack hu­mans when they feel threat­ened. (Surov, et al., 2016; Tissier, et al., 2019)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans
    • bites or stings
  • crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red list, Eu­ro­pean ham­sters have a con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of least con­cern. How­ever, they have a de­creas­ing pop­u­la­tion trend due to habi­tat loss, frag­men­ta­tion, pre­da­tion, and pest con­trol. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Tissier, et al., 2017; Tissier, et al., 2019; Ul­brich and Kayser, 2004)

Other Com­ments

Eu­ro­pean Ham­sters (Crice­tus crice­tus) are also known as Eurasian ham­sters, black-bel­lied ham­sters or com­mon ham­sters. (Hedrzak, et al., 2018; Reznik, et al., 1978; Ul­brich and Kayser, 2004)

Con­trib­u­tors

Sierra Lip­pert (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton, Laura Prugh (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton, Galen Bur­rell (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

crepuscular

active at dawn and dusk

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

fossorial

Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior, specialized for digging or burrowing.

granivore

an animal that mainly eats seeds

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

hibernation

the state that some animals enter during winter in which normal physiological processes are significantly reduced, thus lowering the animal's energy requirements. The act or condition of passing winter in a torpid or resting state, typically involving the abandonment of homoiothermy in mammals.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

soil aeration

digs and breaks up soil so air and water can get in

solitary

lives alone

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

urban

living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

Ref­er­ences

Gad, S. 2014. Chap­ter 2 - Ro­dents model for tox­i­c­ity test­ing and bio­mark­ers. Bio­mark­ers in Tox­i­col­ogy, 1: 7-69. Ac­cessed June 07, 2019 at https://​www.​sciencedirect.​com/​science/​article/​pii/​B9780124046306000026.

Hedrzak, M., D. Cy­wicka, I. Kaim. 2018. Com­par­i­son of Lo­cal­i­ties of Eu­ro­pean Ham­ster ( Crice­tus Crice­tus ) in the Areas of High and Low Level of Human Ac­tiv­ity. Urban Ecosys­tems, 21, no.2: 323-338. Ac­cessed May 13, 2019 at https://​www.​springerprofessional.​de/​en/​comparison-of-localities-of-european-hamster-cricetus-cricetus-i/​15263568.

Nowak, R. 1999. Crice­tus Crice­tus. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Vol. 1, 6 Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more, MD: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Pan­teleyev, P. 1998. 1. Pen­soft, Moscow, Rus­sia, 1: 143.

Reznik, G., H. Schuller, U. Mohr. 1978. Clin­i­cal Anatomy of the Eu­ro­pean Ham­ster : Crice­tus Crice­tus. Philadel­phia, PA: Na­tional Can­cer In­sti­tute. Ac­cessed May 11, 2019 at https://​ia801305.​us.​archive.​org/​33/​items/​clinicalanatomyo00rezn/​clinicalanatomyo00rezn.​pdf.

Surov, A., A. Ba­naszek, P. Bo­go­molov, N. Feok­tis­tova, S. Mo­n­ecke. 2016. Dra­matic Global De­crease in the Range and Re­pro­duc­tion Rate of the Eu­ro­pean Ham­ster Crice­tus Crice­tus. En­dan­gered Species Re­search, 31, no. 1: 119-145. Ac­cessed May 13, 2019 at https://​www.​int-res.​com/​articles/​feature/​n031p119.​pdf.

Tissier, M., Y. Han­drich, O. Dal­longeville, J. Robin, C. Habold. 2017. Diets De­rived from Maize Mono­cul­ture Cause Ma­ter­nal In­fan­ti­cides in the En­dan­gered Eu­ro­pean Ham­ster Due to a Vi­t­a­min B3 De­fi­ciency. Pro­ceed­ings. Bi­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences, 284, no.1847: MLT, 0000-0002-2107-8064. Ac­cessed May 13, 2019 at https://​royalsocietypublishing.​org/​doi/​pdf/​10.​1098/​rspb.​2016.​2168.

Tissier, M., C. Bous­quet, J. Fleitz, C. Habold, O. Petit, Y. Han­drich. 2019. Cap­tive-reared Eu­ro­pean ham­sters fol­low an of­fen­sive strat­egy dur­ing risk-as­sess­ment. PLoS ONE, 14, no.1: e0210158. Ac­cessed June 07, 2019 at https://​journals.​plos.​org/​plosone/​article/​metrics?​id=10.​1371/​journal.​pone.​0210158.

Ul­brich, K., A. Kayser. 2004. A risk analy­sis for the com­mon ham­ster ( Crice­tus crice­tus). Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, 117, no. 3: 263-270. Ac­cessed May 13, 2019 at Ul­brich, & Kayser. (2004). A risk analy­sis for the com­mon ham­ster ( Crice­tus crice­tus). Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, 117(3), 263-270..

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Rodentia rodents
  • Family Cricetidae New World rats and mice, voles, hamsters, and relatives
  • Genus Cricetus black-bellied hamster
  • Species Cricetus cricetus black-bellied hamster