50 Fun Facts About Hamster

Hamsters belong to which rodent subfamily?

The subfamily holds 19 species in seven genera; gerbils and voles are cousins in the same broad family but different subfamilies.

How many species of hamster are there?

Only about five of them are kept as pets; most of the rest live wild across the steppes of Europe and Asia.

The word 'hamster' comes from German, where the verb 'hamstern' means what?

Germans still say someone is 'hamstering' when they stockpile groceries, which is exactly what the animal does with its cheek pouches.

A hamster's cheek pouches extend back as far as which part of its body?

Stuffed full, the pouches can double the width of the animal's head; they are used to carry food back to underground storage chambers.

The golden hamster's name in the Arabic dialect where it was found roughly translates as what?

The saddlebags are the cheek pouches, which stretch from the cheeks all the way to the shoulders.

Which naturalist first scientifically described the Syrian hamster, in 1839?

Waterhouse worked from a single specimen; nearly a century passed before live animals were brought into captivity.

The mother and litter that founded the pet Syrian hamster line were caught in 1930 near which city?

Zoologist Israel Aharoni dug them out of a wheat field; the survivors were shipped to Britain in 1931 and reached private breeders in 1937.

Who captured the wild Syrian hamster family in 1930 that started the pet and laboratory population?

He was a zoologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and several of the animals escaped or were eaten by their mother before breeding began.

Pet and laboratory Syrian hamsters worldwide are believed to descend from what?

That means every golden hamster in a cage today is closely related to every other, a genetic bottleneck unusual even among domestic animals.

In which year were descendants of the captive Syrian hamsters first shipped to Britain?

They reached the United States a few years later, and by the 1950s hamsters were standard pet-shop stock on both sides of the Atlantic.

Wild golden hamsters live in arid northern Syria and which neighbouring country?

The IUCN lists them as endangered in the wild, even as their descendants number in the millions in homes and labs.

In golden hamsters, which sex is usually larger?

Females typically weigh 100–150 grams, and animals from show breeders can reach over 200 grams.

Golden hamsters have the shortest gestation of any known placental mammal, lasting about how long?

Roborovski hamsters, by contrast, take 23 to 30 days; a Syrian female can be pregnant again within days of giving birth.

Golden hamsters mark their burrows using scent glands located where on the body?

The flank glands show up as dark patches on males and are rubbed against tunnel walls to claim territory.

Why should adult Syrian hamsters be housed alone?

Sibling groups tolerate each other only until about eight weeks old, after which the species' territorial instincts take over.

How long do Syrian hamsters typically live in captivity?

That is roughly the same as the dwarf species; wild hamsters, with predators to worry about, live even shorter lives.

Which term describes an animal, like many hamsters, that is most active at dawn and dusk?

It is why a pet hamster is usually asleep all day and rattling its wheel at 11 pm.

Which best describes a hamster's eyesight?

They navigate mostly by smell and whiskers, which is why a hamster will happily walk off the edge of a table.

What is notable about a hamster's front teeth?

Constant gnawing keeps the incisors worn down; without chew toys they can overgrow and curl into the mouth.

In the wild, a Syrian hamster's bout of hibernation most commonly lasts how long?

Body temperature drops close to that of the burrow; house pets kept warm do not hibernate at all.

Like rabbits, hamsters do what to recover nutrients from food fermented in their hindgut?

They are hindgut fermenters, so the first pass through the gut leaves vitamins the animal can only absorb on the second.

How deep do wild Syrian hamsters generally dig their burrows?

The tunnels have several entrances and separate chambers for sleeping, food storage and waste.

What is the collective noun for a group of hamsters?

Given that most species will fight to the death if kept together, it is a word that rarely gets used.

Which genus contains the smallest hamsters, with bodies just 5.5 to 10.5 cm long?

It holds the three dwarf species, including the winter white and the Roborovski.

Roborovski hamsters, prized for their speed, are said to run up to how far in a single night?

At around 6 cm and 16 grams they are the smallest pet hamster, and so fast that they are hard to handle.

The Roborovski hamster is named after an explorer of which nationality, who first noted them in 1894?

Lieutenant Vsevolod Roborovski found them on an expedition into central Asia; UK pets all descend from a batch imported from the Netherlands in 1990.

What triggers the winter white dwarf hamster's coat to turn almost entirely white?

Fewer than about 14 hours of daylight sets it off, so pets kept under house lighting often never change colour.

By what other name is the winter white dwarf hamster commonly known?

It is also sold as the Siberian or Russian dwarf, and comes from the wheat fields of Kazakhstan and the meadows of Mongolia and Siberia.

Peter Simon Pallas first described the winter white in 1773 as what kind of animal?

Rodent taxonomy was in its infancy; the species was not sorted into the hamsters until much later.

Which two hamster species are the only ones able to interbreed and produce live hybrids?

Many pet-shop 'Russian dwarfs' are hybrids, which is one reason pure winter whites are hard to find.

Which dwarf hamster's inherited metabolic problems make it useful in diabetes research?

Owners are advised to avoid sugary treats; unusually for hamsters, the species also shows biparental care and can live in pairs.

The dwarf hamster named for a British collector was first collected in 1902 in which country?

Oldfield Thomas named it in honour of Charles William Campbell three years later.

What is unusual about the Chinese hamster compared with other pet hamsters?

That long tail and slim body get it mistaken for a mouse; it is banned as a pet in some US states for the same reason.

How many chromosomes does the Chinese hamster have, a low count that made it a lab favourite?

Mice have 40 and rats 42; the hamster's few, large chromosomes were easier to study under early microscopes.

What does CHO stand for in the cell line used to make most biotech drugs?

Roughly 70% of biopharmaceuticals, including six of the ten best-selling drugs of 2019, are made in these cells.

Who established the original CHO cell line in 1957?

He obtained a single female Chinese hamster for the work; the descendants of her ovary cells now produce drugs worth tens of billions a year.

How long can the European hamster, the largest species, grow?

With its black belly and brown back it looks nothing like a pet hamster, and it was long trapped as a farm pest for its fur.

What IUCN Red List status was the European hamster given in 2020?

Populations have collapsed across its range from France to Russia; a rare stronghold is Vienna's Central Cemetery.

Between which months does the European hamster hibernate?

It wakes every week or so to eat from a store that averages 2–3 kg of grain but has been found holding as much as 65 kg.

A significant urban population of European hamsters lives in the central cemetery of which city?

The animals burrow among the graves of Beethoven and Brahms, feeding on flowers left by visitors.

How far is it common for a hamster to run on its wheel in a single night?

Wheel-running is not just a captivity tic: a 2014 study found wild mice voluntarily using wheels left out in the field.

German veterinary welfare guidance recommends a wheel of at least what diameter for a Syrian hamster?

Given a choice, hamsters pick bigger wheels; a wheel that is too small forces the spine into a painful arch.

In the English-language version of Hamtaro, the title hamster is owned by a girl named what?

She is Hiroko Haruna in the Japanese original; the franchise had racked up $2.5 billion in merchandise sales by 2002.

Hamtaro aired in the United States on which Cartoon Network block?

Ritsuko Kawai's manga began in 1997 and the anime followed in 2000; in 2020 Thai protesters adopted its theme song as a chant.

The Hampster Dance tune is a sped-up sample from which Disney film's soundtrack?

It is Roger Miller's 'Whistle-Stop'; the 2000 single built on it went to number one in Canada.

The Hampster Dance page was named after creator Deidre LaCarte's own pet hamster, called what?

The Canadian art student built it in 1997 as a GeoCities page that drew four visits a day, until it suddenly went viral in 1999.

'Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster' was a 1986 front-page headline in which British newspaper?

Publicist Max Clifford dreamed it up as a joke; Starr insisted he had never nibbled any small mammal, and the BBC later named it one of the century's most familiar headlines.

Rhino, the fearless hamster who rolls around in a plastic ball, appears in which 2008 Disney film?

He is voiced by story artist Mark Walton, who recorded a scratch track so good the studio kept him.

When a hamster's cheek pouches are full, its head can swell to how many times its normal size?

Hoarding hamsters stuff their pouches so full that their heads can double or triple in size on the way to their storage chambers.

The Djungarian hamster is known to borrow the tunnels and paths of which other small mammal?

Wild hamsters appropriate other animals' tunnels; the Djungarian hamster uses the paths and burrows of the pika.