Gray hamster • Red Data Book of the Ryazan region. Gray hamster Gray hamster description

The gray hamster belongs to the hamster family. This mammal of a number of rodents has six species in its genus, which have spread throughout the planet. In a number of countries, the gray hamster is listed in the Red Book with a protected status of "threatened", but not causing particular concern for extinction. The wild rodent is considered a distant progenitor of the Syrian breed and decorative Dzungaria.

External Data

In the description, rodents of a small species reach a length of up to 12-13 cm. In nature, there are larger individuals from the family of gray hamsters, the descriptive characteristics of which indicate their size up to 25 cm in length. Indicators of the average weight of the animal is in the range up to 300 gr.

A distinctive feature is the color of their fluffy fur:

• the upper part of the body of the rodent is covered with a monochromatic coat, the shades of which vary from light tones of gray to darker ones - brown with ocher, some individuals have a coat color with shades of red,
• in summer period in some individuals, a dark stripe can be traced along the spine in the center of the dorsal region,
• the fur on the underside of the body is also monophonic, but lighter in shade.

The color of the animal acts as a kind of disguise of the animal against predators.

In nature, decorative breeds have been bred - Syrian and djungarian hamsters. In appearance, the Syrian breed of rodent and the Dzungaria are very similar to their wild representative. At the same time, the Syrian species is the largest of the decorative hamsters.

The gray hamster is similar in appearance to the upland representative of rodents, but differs from it in a more elongated muzzle and smaller eyes. His ears are small and hidden in a woolen cover. Due to the rounded shape of the auricles, the rodent is sometimes mistaken for a vole. Him large sizes cheek pouches, which is another distinctive feature.

A rodent with a dense physique is very similar to an ordinary mouse.

In a gray hamster, the tail is small, almost imperceptible in length, up to 2.0 - 3.5 cm, but in some members of the family it may be longer than the body itself. Sometimes he is completely bald or covered with a small amount of rare woolen villi. The soles of the paws of the rodent are covered with a thin hairline.

Habitat geography

The gray hamster has received its distribution throughout the eastern European territory, crossing the Russian Central Asian regions, passing to Mongolia and the western part of China. Its southern side of its geography is located in Israeli territory, passing through the Iraqi and Iranian borders, North India and Pakistan.

In the 50-70s of the last century, the gray hamster was considered one of the many species among all mouse-like rodents.

Initially, the habitat of the gray hamster was exclusively dried spaces of meadows, steppes and semi-deserts. Later, rodent colonies began to settle closer to the place of human habitation, including on household plots and industrial agricultural plots. Gray hamsters prefer to select areas with dry conditions as their habitat. climatic conditions where there is sparse vegetation. Animals avoid forest areas and do not settle in places where there is high humidity. They love thickets and field edges.

Every year, more and more cases of resettlement of rodents in human housing began to be recorded.

Regardless of the large geography of distribution, the number of animals is insignificant. He belongs to the few rare species. Biologists associate the reduction in the number of rodents with changes in the natural landscape due to human activities, as well as with the active use of chemicals in agriculture.

Lifestyle

The mouse-like representative is classified as a sedentary animal that leads a lifestyle characteristic of this family. It is possible to meet a rodent at dusk or at night. They do not leave their place of residence for more than 300 m.

Accommodation

Small rodents prefer to stay on the surface of the earth with an alternation of being underground. Animals build burrows with the simplest structure and numerous pantries, which the rodent fills with food reserves for winter period. Their places of residence are up to 30 cm deep - half a meter and have an entrance located at an angle. In the hole, animals build compartments where the brought grass and grains are stored. Most of the animals in winter time lead an inactive lifestyle, although there are also those individuals who hide in their burrows for the cold season, falling into hibernation.

reproduction

Rodents become sexually mature already after a few months from the moment of birth, therefore, before the end of the year, they can bring offspring. The start of the breeding season is early spring. Under favorable conditions, they continue to breed in cold weather. The female hamster brings in one year 2-3 offspring, numbering up to 8 cubs. The duration of the gestation of the future younger generation is three weeks.

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 plain and mountain steppes, semi-deserts, but sometimes chooses a field-type agrolandscape as its 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 abundance is influenced 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 most dark-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 (Moldova, Odessa region), but probably belong to close, but independent species. In the Pleistocene and prehistoric Holocene found in different places 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 in the territory sandy deserts and in 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, it inhabits human dwellings and outbuildings, meeting even in cities such 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. From wild plants the greatest fodder role is played by sweet clover, loach, wheatgrass, bonfires and other cereals; 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 arrived animals in the same year in Ukraine was not observed, but in favorable years it is known for Northern Kazakhstan.

Harmful in residential and warehouse premises. AT wild nature even in the years mass breeding"Mouse-like" rodents do not reach the high numbers characteristic of mice and voles, and the harm they cause 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

(Cricetulus migratorius) - rodents of dense build the size of a mouse, but with a very short, furry tail and short legs.

They differ from lemmings and pied long ears(the length of the ear is almost equal to the distance between the ear and the eye). They have large cheek pouches.

Gray hamster: size and color

The body length of a gray hamster is 9.5-13 cm, the tail is 2-3.5 cm. The color is gray, the bottom and tail are light. The tail is slightly pubescent or almost naked. The soles of the hind legs are bare or covered with sparse hair, the pads on them are well developed. Paws are white. The ears are small and protrude slightly from the fur.

Gray hamster: habitat

Spreading . inhabits gray hamster in the European part of Russia in the north to the Moscow region and the mouth of the Kama, in the Caucasus and the south of Western Siberia to the foothills of the Altai in the east, in the forest-steppes, steppes and settlements. It was brought to Moscow, where it took root in some areas of the city (for example, at the Belorussky railway station). Adheres to dry places, desert depressions, rocks and screes in the mountains, steppe gullies, wastelands and pastures.

They are active mainly at night and at dusk, but sometimes appear during the day.

Gray hamsters have to move a lot in search of food. But short legs do not allow them to run fast, like mice and rats. Therefore, in case of danger, they do not run away, but hide or try to hide in a hole.

AT middle lane, probably falls into winter sleep, but sometimes appears on the surface even at twenty-degree frosts.

Prefers to use the burrows of other rodents, but also builds its own simple ones, one or two meters long, with 2-3 entrances, with a nesting chamber at a depth of 30-40 cm (up to half a meter in winter) and several dead ends-otnorks. Often, natural voids are used. For food, it leaves the hole for 100-200 m (up to 500). In the experiments, the ringed animals returned to their burrow from a distance of up to 700 m.

Tracks of gray hamsters are similar to those of voles, but almost always without a tail imprint. It feeds on cereals, legumes, quinoa and other plants (mainly immature seeds and inflorescences). For the winter, it collects small reserves of seeds (up to 800 g). Despite the harmless appearance, these fluffy babies sometimes act like bloodthirsty predators: a case is known when a hamster got to the bottom of a gopher sleeping in a hole, bit it and dragged the meat and fat piece by piece into its pantry. More often, seeds and bulbs of plants are stored in pantries for the winter.

Unlike their closest relatives - voles - gray hamsters are not able to eat coarse plant foods.

Gray hamster: breeding

breeds gray hamster from April to September, up to 3 broods of 2-9 cubs per year. Young begin to settle at the age of about three weeks. They usually live alone, although the male and female sometimes remain in the same hole for some time. During the breeding season, they are sometimes active during the day, but keep close to shelters.

In nature, gray hamsters are infected with various infections: plague, tularemia, leptospirosis, pseudotuberculosis.

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 holes, but he rarely digs them, preferring to use ready-made holes 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 may fall 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 of upland hamsters living in southeastern regions In Russia, mainly in Tuva, the soles of the feet are densely covered with hair, and the footprints on the tracks are very indistinct.