Hamsters are rodents with short tails, small ears, and stubby legs. They have different colors such as brown, grey, black, etc. There are 26 species of hamsters classified in 6 – 7 genera. They are easy to breed in captivity and have a cute size and personality making them popular pets. They are also used as lab animals for testing. Their size ranges from as tiny as 2 – 4 inches like the dwarf Roborovski hamster to 13.4 inches like the Syrian hamster.
Table of Contents
Habitat
Hamsters are natives of Syria, North China, Russia, Mongolia, Romania, Greece, and Belgium. They are desert animals living in dunes, sparse rocky areas, steppes and edges of deserts. These places experience extreme temperature variation ranging from extreme cold to scorching hot in a short span of time.
These fluctuations are the reason why the hamsters live in underground burrows and have dense fur. The dense fur keeps them warm in the cold while the ambiance in a borrow is stead, moist and cool. The temperature is between 65 – 75 F and the humidity is higher than the surrounding desert. Besides variable temperatures, hamsters also deal with a great variation in the volume of food. There are times of abundance, and there are times of scarcity.
Habits and Characteristics
They adapt to food scarcity by storing food. The term hamster comes from the German word “hamstern” which means “to hoard.” Hamsters have cheek pouches in which they stuff food to consume later and build their overwintering stockpile. These pouches are folds of skin that extend up to their shoulders.
Wild hamster has another adaptation that helps them survive. i.e., camouflage. It is the ability to hide in plain sight as they blend into their environment. Hamsters have markings and colors of camouflage. If they live in a rocky area, they will have a fur that matches the color of the rocks. If they live among the dunes, they will be sandy or grey in color.
This increases their chances of survival as they are hidden from their predators. Conversely, this adaptation is also used for hunting. Whatever color the for on the dorsal side their bellies are always pale. These light-colored bellies help in thermoregulation. Because they reflect the heat away from their bodies, keeping them cool while they are scurrying around on hot rocks and dunes.
Creatures Of The Dark
Hamsters are mostly crepuscular, i.e., they come out during dawn or dusk to avoid being hunted. They are classified as nocturnal as the regions they live in experience longer nights in winters. They come out in the semidarkness or darkness to forage for fruits, seeds, and vegetation.
Though mostly herbivores they may eat an occasional insect that trespasses their burrow thus classified as omnivores. Hamsters from the Middle East hunt in packs to find insects. They are also hindgut fermenters or coprophages who eat their own feces to recover the nutrients that were not absorbed.
Hamsters are myopic and colorblind. They are colorblind due to their crepuscular and nocturnal habits where the retina has adapted to seeing in the dark. Thus the number of rods is more than cones though they see more than black and white they do not see colors like humans. They are near-sighted because they live so close to the ground and in darkness. Thus there isn’t much use of a sharp sight like an eagle to spot prey from high up in the sky.
But mother nature makes up for this lack is sight by giving them a sharp sense of smell and hearing. Their little ears are extremely sensitive and pick up sounds in the ultrasonic range as well as they do the sonic. They use these high pitched noises to communicate with each other.
They use the sense of smell to find food and mate. Hamsters have scent glands on their abdomens and flanks. They leave a scent trail when they rub along the path. They can even distinguish if there is a male or a female hamster around. So if there is a receptive female in the area, they breed and if it is a male they fight for their solitary existence.
Survival in the Wild
Hamsters are excellent diggers and make chambers and galleries underground where they nest, store food, urinate, etc. They use their teeth, fore and hind legs to dig. They are known to take over tunnels made by other animals such as pikas, etc. Their teeth grow consistently, and they have to gnaw and chew to wear them to a manageable size.
Wild hamsters are mostly solitary and fight fiercely and fatally when forced together. Dwarf hamsters may tolerate members of their species. The Russian hamsters are monogamous and if separated become depressed, especially the males. They become lethargic, loss appetite and become obese.
To survive the cold, hamsters go into torpor or hibernation. They let their body temperature drop close to the ambient temperature and maintain it around 20°C. This method of thermoregulation drops the rate of metabolism to approximately 5%, helping the animal survive the winter and food scarcity. Their physiological functions such as rate of breathing and heartbeats reduce, inducing a torpor that lasts up to 10 days.
These smart yet gentle animals live in harsh conditions and time their breeding in tandem with spring and summer when the food is in abundance. The female hamster goes into the heat every 4 days and conceives quickly. The gestation lasts for 15 – 20 days. The litter is born blind and gain eyesight only by the 2nd week. By the 3-4 week, they are weaned, and the female is ready to mate again. They have 2 – 3 litters annually and live up to 1 – 2 years in the wild. Yet they have not been able to survive habitat loss due to agriculture, development, and urbanization. This has made the Syrian hamsters a vulnerable species named on the IUCN Red List. Humankind should make an effort to limit their population and activities and respect the other residents of their home planet.
Conclusion
Most of the hamster breeds are still in the wild. You can find hamsters in the wild, but they are not suitable for domestication.
You May Also Interested In: