European hamster
| European hamster | ||||||||||||
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European hamster ( Cricetus cricetus ) |
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| Leske , 1779 | ||||||||||||
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| Cricetus cricetus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The hamster ( Cricetus cricetus ), also European hamster called, is a rodent (Rodentia) from the family of agitators (Cricetidae) and the sub-family of hamsters (Cricetinae).
features
European hamsters reach a head-trunk length of 20 to 34 centimeters, plus a 4 to 6 centimeter long, almost hairless tail. The adult weight varies between 200 and 650 grams. Males are usually larger and heavier than females. The hamster is considered to be the most colorful European fur animal. The color of the fur is variable: the most common form is a yellow-brown upper side and a dark, almost black underside. There are several white spots on the flanks, on the cheek, in front of and behind the front legs. The region around the muzzle and around the eyes is colored reddish-brown, the feet and the tip of the nose are again white. There are also melanistic (almost completely black) and strikingly light brown hamsters. The under hair is evenly gray. Like all hamsters, they have well developed cheek pouches, the feet are wide and have well developed claws.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area of the field hamsters extends from Belgium across Central and Eastern Europe to the Russian Altai region and northwestern China . The hamster was originally native to the steppes of Eastern Europe and spread to Western Europe in the course of the intensification of agriculture. Archaeologists found 2,000-year-old hamster skeletons in the Rhine-Neckar region.
Way of life
They are typical soil dwellers and occur almost exclusively in loess and clay soil . They create deep, branched earthworks that contain a living room and a pantry, both up to a meter deep in winter construction. The burrows of the males , which always live individually, are usually smaller. Vertical drop tubes and usually two to three flat entrances are typical for every hamster den. Due to their burrowing activity as diggers and the fact that they accumulate humus under the surface of the soil, they have a certain share in the formation of black earth . The striking counter-coloring (back lighter than belly) is plausibly explained by the fact that a hamster, when it can no longer escape, stands up to defend itself: the black belly side imitates the mouth of a larger predator with the four white paws as "fangs".
The hamster's preferred foods are grains and legumes , clover , potatoes , beets and maize ; sometimes he carries up to five kilograms of grain into his pantry. To survive the winter in its den, a hamster needs at least 2 kg of food. European hamsters are prone to cannibalism ; Reasons for this can be lack of food or overpopulation . New research has shown that the consumption of maize associated with a vitamin B 3 deficiency (see Pellagra ) can trigger cannibalism in European hamsters.
The European hamster is a mainly crepuscular and nocturnal territorial loner. Each animal has its own den, which it defends against other animals. After waking up from hibernation (in Braunschweig from the end of April to the beginning of May), he begins to build or repair the summer buildings, the corridors and chambers of which are usually less than a meter below the surface of the earth. The mating season, which lasts until August, begins soon afterwards.
European hamsters and humans
Their occurrence in Central Europe is limited to cultivated fields and their peripheral zones. Until around 1980, European hamsters were so common in parts of the GDR that bonuses were suspended for animals killed (see also hamster fur on the utilization of the fur ).
In 1801, Gerhard Heinrich Buse wrote in “The Whole of the Action”, Part I, Volume IV:
They are caught partly in the spring, when they have hardly emerged from their winter sojourn, because that is where their hides are most beautiful, in traps or in pots that are dug into the ground, partly in autumn, by digging up which of the so-called Hamster burrows happen, which for a while get their food from it. But the authorities have to keep a watchful eye on these people, often only removing the grain from the hamsters' magazines and letting the hamsters run so that they can reap the following year where they have not sown.
In the 1950s, the hamster pelt volume in the Magdeburg district was 1.1 to 1.2 million pelts a year. The hamster had to be caught on the beet fields as soon as the beets rose. Experience shows that 10 m² around the burrow had been eaten away on the first day. The hamster burrows in Aschersleben were also fumigated until 1975 . Since the hamster skin represented an important economic article, the tobacco experts of the GDR tried to intensify the hamster trapping by the part-time hamster catchers and thus the utilization of the skins instead of fumigation. At that time, however, a significant decrease in the amount of fur was already noticeable, although it was not certain what proportion was attributable to the increased trapping efforts compared to the changed cultivation methods (enlargement of the fields, industrialization of harvesting methods). In 1979 25,400 skins were delivered in the Staßfurt district, 8500 in the Oschersleben district, 31,800 in the Halberstadt district, 5500 in the Haldensleben district and 15,000 in the Schönebeck district . It was said that the significant differences in catches could not simply be explained by the fact that the hamster "migrates"; the numbers should be balanced out in the future by increased catching efforts.
Due to the industrial cultivation of fields, the increasing development as well as the isolation and fragmentation of the habitats , the European hamster is threatened with extinction in large parts of Germany. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg they are now considered extinct. There are now programs for breeding and reintroduction of hamsters in Alsace, the Netherlands and Germany . Farmers can improve the conditions for the European hamster, but also for other endangered species of the local cultural landscape such as partridge , skylark and brown hare through adapted management, harvesting and rest in the stubble .
Because of its lively nature and the habit of stocking up, the European hamster became a symbol for quick-tempered, greedy and stingy people early on. See also: hamsters .
The European hamster is one of the animal species protected in accordance with Annex IV letter a) of Article 12 of Directive 92/43 / EEC (Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive) , better known as the "Habitats Directive" or " Habitat Directive ". As a strictly protected species, it is also mentioned in the Bern Convention (Appendix II). As a result, existing European hamster populations occasionally hold up the planning, construction and / or development, for example of industrial areas, roads or other traffic routes. In a judgment of June 9, 2011, the ECJ condemned France for failing to set up a program of measures that would allow strict protection of the European hamster species. In July 2020, the IUCN classified European hamsters as " critically endangered " . Without further protective measures, this could occur by 2050.
literature
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Nature conservation and landscape management in Brandenburg. State Environment Agency Brandenburg, Issue 1, 1998. (PDF file; 6.2 MB) ( Memento from May 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- Anja Weidling, Michael Stubbe: Common hamster occurrence depending on the soil .
- Kerstin Seluga: Occurrence and stock situation of the hamster in Saxony-Anhalt - historical outline, situation and conclusions for the protection of species.
- Ulrich Weinhold: On the methodology of radiometric investigations on the European hamster Cricetus cricetus L. 1758 in the field .
- Leo Backbier: The hamster in Dutch Limburg.
- Resolution to save the European hamster Cricetus cricetus L., 1758 - Animal of the year 1996. - Petersen et al. (Edit.): The European system of protected areas Natura 2000. Ecology and distribution of species of the FFH directive in Germany. Volume 2 ( vertebrate animals ) (= series of publications for landscape management and nature conservation. Issue 69/2). Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster-Hiltrup 2004, ISBN 3-7843-3620-5 .
- The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) published two specialist books in February 2005 to help deal with the species of the Habitats Directive in Germany. For the first time, it presented the relevant basic data for FFH species, which are required for the implementation of the European directive, e.g. B. in questions of planning, reporting obligations and environmental impact assessments .
The two-volume work (Volume 1 = Plants and Invertebrates ) presents in detail all species native to Germany that fall under the Habitats Directive. Call tables
- the scientific and German species name with EU code,
- Information on the systematics / taxonomy , the species-specific characteristics, the distribution of the species and Germany's responsibility for the conservation of the respective species in the EU.
- the essential data on biology and ecology, risk and protection as well as
- Further information on the identification of the species, the need for research and species experts .
The protected species newly added to Germany with the EU's eastward expansion in May 2004 are listed in a table on the protection and endangerment status at the end of the second volume.
- Holger Meinig, Axel Buschmann, Tobias Erik Reiners, Melanie Neukirchen, Sandra Balzer & Ruth Petermann (2014): The status of the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in Germany . Nature and Landscape, Volume 89, Issue 8: pp. 338–343.
- Ute Köhler, Christian Geske, Kerstin Mammen, Stefanie Martens, Tobias Erik Reiners, Ralf Schreiber & Ulrich Weinhold (2014): Measures to protect the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in Germany . Nature and Landscape, Volume 89, Issue 8: pp. 344–349.
- Ubbo Mammen, Anja Kayser, Kerstin Mammen, Daniel Raddatz & Ulrich Weinhold (2014): The consideration of the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in the context of intervention projects . Nature and Landscape, Volume 89, Issue 8: pp. 350–355.
Web links
- Cricetus cricetus in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2020.2. Posted by: Banaszek, A., Bogomolov, P., Feoktistova, N., La Haye, M., Monecke, S., Reiners, TE, Rusin, M., Surov, A., Weinhold, U. & Ziomek, J., 2019. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- Working group for field hamster protection
- Hamster protection in Saxony
- Resettlement of hamsters
- The temporal organization of hibernation in the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.)
- WANTED: Hamsters in Austria
- European Hamster - Architect under the Field / The European Hamster ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- K. Mammen, U. Mammen: Possibilities and limits of the resettlement of European hamsters (Cricetus cricetus) (PDF; 45 kB). In: Methods of field ecological mammal research. 2, 2003, pp. 461-470.
- Video: Cricetus cricetus (Muridae) - bringing in food and nesting material . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1977, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / E-2228 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Researchers want to stop cannibalism among European hamsters. badische-zeitung.de, February 3, 2017, accessed on February 10, 2017 .
- ↑ Paul Schöps, Kurt Häse, Fritz Schmitz: The hamster. In: The fur trade. Writings for fur customers and the fur industry. 7, 1956, issue 1, p. 15.
- ↑ Joint actions to intensify the hamster catch. A round table discussion with experts. In: Brühl. VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, issue 4, July / August 1980.
- ↑ European hamster extinct in Brandenburg. In: Märkische Oderzeitung. February 18, 2015.
- ↑ A. Zehm: Endangerment of the European hamster continues to increase. - ANLiegen Natur 37/1, pp. 13-14, Laufen 2015. Accessed November 12, 2015.
- ↑ Grimm's German Dictionary .
- ↑ See e.g. B. BUND's complaint to the EU Commission regarding an (alleged) violation of the Habitats Directive of June 22, 2002 (DOC file; 44 kB). ( Memento from December 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ ECJ: C-383/09 European Commission against France . ECLI: EU: C: 2011: 369.
- ↑ Almost a third of lemurs and North Atlantic Right Whale now Critically Endangered - IUCN Red List. IUCN , July 9, 2020, accessed July 9, 2020 .
Bat (1992) | Wildcat (1993) | Deer (1994) | Apollofalter (1995) | European hamster (1996) | Alpine Ibex (1997) | Toad (1998) | Otter (1999) | Aesculapian Snake (2000) | Brown hare (2001) | Deer (2002) | Wolf (2003) | Dormouse (2004) | Brown Bear (2005) | Seal (2006) | Moose (2007) | Wisent (2008) | Brown-breasted Hedgehog (2009) | Badger (2010) | Lynx (2011) | Chamois (2012) | Mauswiesel (2013) | Wisent (2014) | Brown Hare (2015) | European hamster (2016) | Dormouse (2017) | European wildcat (2018) | Deer (2019) | Mole (2020)