Approximately three hundred species of various breeds are included in the Hamster family, which mean not only known species pets, but also wild representatives, about which little information has been collected. The gray hamster is directly related to this family, like its fellow rodent.
The habitat characteristic of these animals is the vastness of the countries of Europe, as well as Russia, Mongolia and Asia. Sometimes a rodent can be found in Iran, Iraq, India and Afghanistan. The gray hamster cannot tolerate high humidity, so it prefers dry areas. Quite often you can meet this animal in the garden, vegetable garden, as well as in places Agriculture.
The gray animal has dimensions from 10 to 13 cm, while the tail length is 4 cm. Maximum weight hamster is 300 gr. The animal has an oblong muzzle, small rounded ears and a pointed nose. On the muzzle of the hamster you can see black shiny eyes. The color of the animal has a gray color, while along the entire length of the back there is a strip of a dark gray hue.
The paws and tummy of the hamster are highlighted in white. Quite rarely there are individuals, on the wool of which there are blotches of red color. Wool of this type acts as a kind of protection, since the rodent is subject to attack by absolutely any predators. Because of the coincidence in appearance, the gray hamster is mistaken for a mouse. The main distinguishing features are the cheek pouches, the presence of a small, almost invisible tail, as well as fluffy gray paws.
Way of life
The gray hamster leads a sedentary lifestyle, and at the same time prefers loneliness. Due to the development of a large amount of land for agriculture, the rodent began to gradually move to areas close to humans. It is quite typical for the animal to occupy other people's holes, previously created by mice or its relatives, since he himself does not like this kind of occupation.
Sometimes there are cases when the hamster destroys and even eats the host, but only on condition that its size is much smaller. A hamster can create a hole for himself only when there are no other options. The animal creates housing for itself, while making separate compartments in the hole, which resemble rooms for storing supplies, as well as for sleeping.
Since the gray hamster is a nocturnal inhabitant, it carries out all its active actions, such as hunting, gathering supplies, searching for food, in the dark. It is not typical for the animal to move far from the area it occupies, but if it does move away, it will find its way home with the help of scent. In winter, the hamster hibernates, which it sometimes interrupts to refresh itself. The period of such a state lasts about 5-6 months and depends directly on the weather.
In the natural environment, a gray hamster lives for about 4-5 years, but not many individuals succeed in this, since they are hunted enough a large number of predators.
Behavior of a gray hamster
Due to poor eyesight, the hamster has to navigate by the presence of a variety of smells in space, as well as by various sounds. The animal has a very calm character, and can only be aggressive with ground squirrels, mice, or its brethren. In the event that danger arises, the hamster immediately runs away, because due to its small size, it is unable to resist the predator. Since the hamster leads an active lifestyle at night, it practically does not catch the eye of a person.
The animal is very clean, and in the hole it creates a separate place for the toilet, in which it often cleans. The hamster regularly grooms its fur.
Features of the diet
Most of the diet of a gray hamster is occupied by cereals, namely:
- millet,
- wheat,
- oats,
- barley.
Sometimes it can use beans, peas and some types of legumes. In the autumn, the food of the animal consists of:
- watermelon seeds,
- melons,
- zucchini,
- pumpkins.
He also prefers vegetables such as beets, carrots and corn. The diet of a gray hamster includes food of animal origin, which consists of:
- worms,
- rachkov,
- mice
- shellfish,
- ants
- Zhukov.
For the entire warm period of the year, the animal stores food several times more than it weighs.
Reproduction features
Hamsters of this species are very productive in terms of offspring.
Pregnancy of the female lasts for 20-25 days. The number of newborn hamsters can reach 10 individuals per litter. Young animals are born absolutely without sight and hearing, while they also have no hair. However, after a few weeks, babies can eat food on their own.
For 20 days, the mother takes care of her cubs, after which they go on an independent life. Puberty also occurs after the expiration of the above period, therefore, young females become capable of producing offspring.
Nevertheless, the gray hamster is listed in the Red Book. Several factors influenced this:
- Reducing the amount of territory. Since the areas of wild nature are constantly decreasing and being developed by humans, which in turn limits the animals in their choice of natural habitat.
- Exposure to chemicals that people use while processing agriculture.
- The constant hunting of predators, since quite most of young, do not live to middle age due to the constant attacks of predatory animals.
For agriculture, the gray hamster does absolutely no harm, which cannot be said about other representatives of rodents.
The gray hamster (Cricetulus migratorius) belongs to the genus of gray hamsters of the hamster family, a detachment of rodents.
The body length of the animal ranges from 9 to 13 cm. The tail is almost bare, short, up to 4 cm.
Descriptions of the color of the gray hamster vary depending on the habitat, this is due to its camouflage function. Fluffy fur occurs from light to dark gray. The underside of the body is always light, fawn. The ears are small, rounded, there is no light border. Paws are covered with hair to pronounced calluses. Black eyes and rodent are relatively large.
habitats
The species more often settles in flat and mountain steppes, semi-deserts, but sometimes chooses a field-type agrolandscape as a habitat. On the territory of Russia, the habitat includes the south of the European part of the country, the south Western Siberia and the Caucasus.
Lifestyle
The gray hamster is nocturnal, sometimes active during the day. In search of food, he has to move a lot, but he rarely leaves the house for long distances. Usually it is 200-300 meters. However, it was empirically found that even being at a distance of 700 meters from the dwelling, a gray hamster can easily find its way home.
The rodent rarely digs a hole, preferring to occupy the abandoned dwellings of moles, mice, rats or ground squirrels. Sometimes found in natural shelters (hollows in rocks or placers of stones). Otherwise, he himself makes a hole that goes down at an angle of 30-40 cm. In addition to the nesting compartment in the hole, there is always also a food storage - a barn.
In the cold season, the animal may fall into a shallow hibernation (this is more typical for hamsters living in the north or in mountainous areas), but it is often noticed on the surface and at low temperatures.
Gray hamsters breed from April to September, during this period the daily activity of animals increases. Pregnancy lasts from 15 to 20 days, and during the season the female can bring 3 litters of 5-10 cubs each. Young growth is settled at the age of up to 4 weeks.
The number is affected by the amount of precipitation during the breeding season: it increases in dry years, but still remains relatively low. The gray hamster prefers solitude; large clusters of individuals of this species are extremely rare. natural enemies are birds of prey (harrier, owl) and mammals (fox, ferret, ermine). The use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers can also affect the abundance.
The animal is unpretentious in nutrition - omnivorous. Preference is given to grain feed, immature seeds and inflorescences of cereals.
Sometimes the animal can eat the tender parts of green plants, but does not consume coarse food, like wild grass, unlike the related vole. Willingly gray hamster eats beetles, worms, snails, caterpillars, ants, insect larvae.
Species protection measures
The habitat of animals is very wide, but the animal population is not numerous. If half a century ago the animal was very common in the steppe, now it is extremely rare. There are no exact numbers.
In many regions of Russia, the gray hamster is listed in the regional Red Book.
Regions that assigned category III to the species (rare, not numerous, poorly studied species): Lipetsk, Samara, Tula, Ryazan, Chelyabinsk regions.
Conditions of detention
In captivity, the breed is unpretentious, the conditions of detention practically do not differ from the recommendations for. Despite the fact that in nature the gray hamster eats a variety of seeds and animal food, at home it is better to give preference to a ready-made feed mixture for rodents. This will provide . In a spacious cage, a running wheel, a drinking bowl and a small house should be installed. Gradually, the animal gets used to its owner, begins to recognize his face and hands. In rare cases, a gray hamster is even able to remember its name and come to the call. This adorable big-eyed animal can become a family pet if its modest needs are met with a little attention and care.
gray hamster
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gray hamster. Body length up to 128 mm, tail length up to 37 mm (25-34% of body length). The foot is pubescent to calluses. The color of the top is one-color, from dark to light ash-gray with a fawn tint. The wide black ends of the guard hairs form a darkening along the middle part of the back, which in the darkest-colored forms can take on the character of an indistinct longitudinal black stripe, while in light-colored forms it remains only in a part of the individuals in the form of a darkening of the middle of the back in its posterior section. The coloration of the top in most cases protrudes into the light coloration of the sides with two or three small corners. Ear without a light border, one-color.
The skull is similar to the skull of the Baraba hamster, differing from it in the structure of the anterior ends of the parietal bones, which do not form outgrowths directed forward, and in the auditory capsules somewhat more flattened below.
Fossil remains of gray hamsters are known in the European part of the USSR from the Late Pliocene (Moldavia, Odessa region), but they probably belong, although close, but independent species. In the Pleistocene and prehistoric Holocene, they were found in different places of the modern range from the Crimea to Novgorod-Seversky in the west and from the Kama Urals to the region of the middle reaches of the river. Ural in the east.
Spreading. Open landscapes of mountains and plains from the eastern Balkans, Asia Minor and Western Asia to Altai, western Mongolia, Northwestern and Central China. In the USSR - from the western borders to the north to the line Chernivtsi, Shepetovka, Zhitomir, Kyiv, Gomel, Orel, Ryazan, Gorky, the right bank of the river. Volga at the latitude of Kazan, the mouth of the river. Cheremshan, Aznakayevo, Ufa, foothills of the southern tip of the Ural Range, northern Aral Sea, southern shore of the lake. Chelkar-Tengiz, the northern part of Bet-Pak-Dala and the Kazakh highlands. Further to the east, the border crosses the river. Irtysh north of Semipalatinsk (village Kanonerka), runs through the southwestern part Altai Territory and along the western and southern foothills of Altai it leaves the USSR. To the south of this border, it is known everywhere to the southern borders of the country, but is absent from the territory of sandy deserts and from the forests of the Greater Caucasus.
Biology and economic importance. The gray hamster is distributed from the forest-steppe to semi-desert and desert regions and high mountains (in the Pamirs up to 4000 m above sea level). Most common in the plains and mountain steppes. In deserts and semi-deserts, it penetrates through moist areas together with humans. Occasionally found in the forest belt of mountains Central Asia and Transcaucasia, especially on lands developed for agriculture, but absent in the moist lowland forests of the western and eastern Caucasus. In the south inhabits human dwellings and outbuildings, meeting even in such cities as Ashgabat, Mary, Frunze, Yerevan, where it lives in multi-storey buildings, up to attic rooms inclusive, and in some years it numerically prevails over the house mouse.
Like other hamsters, it leads a predominantly twilight and solitary lifestyle. In winter, activity is reduced, but, apparently, it does not hibernate. Self-dug holes have a simple device, most often with two entrances and one chamber; blind minks are often used to store supplies. Willingly settles in abandoned burrows of other rodents or along the edges of residential colonies, as well as in natural shelters formed by voids in stone placers and rock crevices. By autumn, together with mice and voles, it is found in haystacks.
The gray hamster feeds mainly on the seeds of wild and cultivated plants. In the burrows, stocks of grains of cereals, buckwheat, peas, pumpkin seeds, watermelon and sunflower seeds, as well as pits of cherries, plums and other fruits were found. Of the wild plants, sweet clover, loach, wheatgrass, bonfires, and other cereals play the greatest feeding role; does not store thorny seeds. Stock weight up to 800 g. There are indications that breeding females make small (up to 200 g) summer stocks. Animal food is constantly eaten, especially terrestrial mollusks, caterpillars and insect larvae, ants, beetles and orthoptera; even the remains of scorpions and phalanges were found in the stomachs.
Brings up to 3 litters per year. The number of cubs in a litter is from 3 to 10, most often 5-7 in the west of the range, 7-8 in the east. Young at the age of about 3 weeks begin to settle. Reproduction of newly arrived animals in the same year was not observed in Ukraine, but in favorable years it is known for Northern Kazakhstan.
Harmful in residential and warehouse premises. IN wild nature even during the years of mass reproduction of "mouse-like" rodents, it does not reach the high numbers characteristic of mice and voles, and the harm caused by them is relatively small. However, it can be quite noticeable in the steppe shelter belts. Natural carrier of plague and tularemia pathogens.
Geographic variation and subspecies. Towards the south, the dimensions increase, the color of the upper part brightens and turns yellow (especially on the border with the color of the belly), and the darkening along the middle part of the back disappears, remaining only in its rear section. Mountain forms are larger than flat ones, with bluish tones in the color of the top, with more lush fur and long vibrissae. More than 15 subspecies have been described, their number in the fauna of the USSR is actually much less than that given below.
Literature. Mammals of the fauna of the USSR. Part 1. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963
GRAY HAMster Cricetulus migratorius (Pallas, 1773)
PĔChĔKÇĔ SARĂ ARLAN (= SARĂ ARLAN)
Status. III category. Rare view. Located on the northern border of the range.
Description. The body length is 10-13 cm, weight - 30-50 g, tail length - 2.5-3.5 cm. It looks like an ordinary hamster, but smaller in size, the tail is shorter and has a different color. The top is yellowish-gray, the bottom of the body is whitish. There are cheek pouches. Active at night. Feeds on seeds, green parts of plants, small invertebrates. Makes stocks. It breeds 2-4 times a year, in a litter of 5-7 cubs. In favorable conditions it is very prolific. Since autumn it can be found in haystacks and straw. More active at dusk and at night. The area is the steppes of the Palearctic. In Chuvashia, it occurs in the South-East, in the Surye, Alatyr Zasurye, the Center (it was noted in the Cheboksary and Vurnarsky regions), and the Volga region. Included in the Red Books Nizhny Novgorod region(category D) and the Republic of Tatarstan (category IV).
Habitats. Lives in open habitats, on the borders, along the slopes of ravines, gullies; sometimes on the outskirts of settlements, and in the south - even in buildings, but everywhere it prefers dry places.
The number and trends of its change. In Chuvashia, the number is insignificant.
The main limiting factors. Plowing of steppe plots, plowing of boundaries, deep freezing of the soil, spring burning of dry grass and the use of chemicals on agricultural land.
Breeding.Breeding activities in the republic are not 
dressed, although there are separate experiments on the maintenance of the house. Biotechnical measures to restore the abundance of the species in nature have not been developed.
Security measures taken. No special protective measures were taken in the republic.
Required security measures. Identification and conservation of habitats. Monitoring of the abundance of the species in natural conditions.
Sources of information: Popov, 1960; Andronikov, Farshatov, 1971 a; Oliger, 1971; Sokolov, 1977; Plechova, 1978; Ignatiev, Pavlov, 1993; Ignatiev, 1995.
Compiled by: Plechova 3.H.I, Dimitriev A.V.
A small ash-gray animal with a white belly. The length of its body is 9.5–13 cm, the tail is 2–3.5 cm. It lives in the European part of Russia, in the Caucasus and the south of Western Siberia, reaching east to the foothills of Altai, and north to the Moscow region. But still, it is mainly an inhabitant of the steppes, semi-deserts and foothills with a dry climate.
Traces of short jumps of a gray hamster and his droppings
Inhabits grass and wormwood steppes, semi-fixed sands, parts of mountain steppes and cultivated lands. It feeds mainly on seeds of cereals, wormwood, sedge, astragalus and cultivated plants, pits of cherries, sweet cherries, grains of cereals, sunflower seeds, pumpkins, watermelons.
Lower surface of the left pair of legs of a gray hamster
The soles of the paws of the hamster are quite wide, the fingers are short. The size of the front paw is 0.8x0.8, the back one is 1.5 × 0.8 cm. There are 4 on the front paw, 5 fingers on the back, but the short 1st toe is not visible on all prints .
The animal moves in short jumps, leaving traces - three or four. The length of the jumps is 7-10, the width of the track is about 4 cm. The droppings are dark oblong grains about 1.5 × 0.8 cm in size. Outwardly, it resembles droppings.
This hamster lives in burrows, but rarely digs them, preferring to use ready-made burrows of other rodents. For food from the hole goes 100-200 m, and sometimes even further. In most of its range, it is awake throughout the year.
In the middle lane it flows, possibly, into winter sleep, but it is not deep, and the animal can appear on the surface even in severe frost. In winter, it stores a small amount of seeds, up to 800 g. It reproduces from April to September. Up to 3 broods of 2–9 cubs per year.
In 3 species of hamsters from the genus Upland hamsters, living in the southeastern regions of Russia, mainly in Tuva, the soles of the paws are densely covered with hair, and the paw prints on the tracks are very indistinct.
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