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- The domestication of the Syrian hamster began in the late 1700s when naturalists cataloged the Syrian hamster, also known as Mesocricetus auratus or the golden hamster. In 1930 medical researchers captured Syrian hamster breeding stock for animal testing. Further domestication led this animal to become a popular pet. The Syrian hamster's natural habitat is in a small region of Northwest Syria near the city of Aleppo. It was first described by science in the 1797 second edition of The Natural History of Aleppo, a book written and edited by two Scottish physicians living in Syria. The Syrian hamster was first recognized as a distinct species in 1839. In 1930, a scientist seeking animal subjects for medical research had the first Syrian hamsters captured to become laboratory animals. Scientists bred those hamsters and during the 1930s sent their descendants to various other laboratories around the world. By the late 1940s in the United States, a commercial hamster industry had begun to provide hamsters for laboratory use and at the same time to popularize hamsters as pets. In later years, further expeditions back to Syria captured other hamsters to increase genetic diversity among the populations of hamsters shared among breeders. Wild Syrian hamsters become tame in a matter of days after being captured and handled by humans. Wild hamsters are quick to adapt to captivity and thrive in a laboratory setting. (en)
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- 29442 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)
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- Aharoni (en)
- Alexander and Patrick Russell (en)
- son of Ben-Menachen (en)
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- The Hamster is less common than the field mouse. I once found upon dissecting one of them, the pouch on each side stuffed with young french beans, arranged lengthways so exactly, and close to each other, that it appeared strange by what mechanism it had been effected; for the membrane which forms the pouch, though muscular, is thin, and the most expert fingers could not have packed the beans in a more regular order. When they were laid loosely on the table, they formed a heap 3 times the bulk of the animal's body. (en)
- This species is less than the common Hamster , and is remarkable for its deep golden yellow colouring. The fur is moderately long and very soft, and has a silk-like gloss; the deep golden yellow colouring extends over the upper parts and sides of the head and body, and also over the outer side of the limbs: on the back the hairs are brownish at the tip, hence in this part the fur assumes a deeper hue than on the sides of the body: the sides of the muzzle, throat, and upper parts of the body are white, but faintly tinted with yellow: on the back, and sides of the body, all the hairs are of a deep grey or lead colour at the base. The feet and tail are white. The ears are of moderate size, furnished externally with deep golden-coloured hairs, and internally with whitish hairs. The moustaches consist of black and white hairs intermixed. (en)
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- 0001-04-09 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- Memoirs of a Hebrew Zoologist, 1942 (en)
- letter to Murphy, as quoted in Murphy 1985, p. 12 (en)
- The Natural History of Aleppo, page 181 of the 1797 English second edition (en)
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- Out of love for science and for the broadening of mankind, the Allpowerful nudged a single wheel of the uncountable wheels of nature – and a miracle happened!
Only someone who has tasted true happiness, heavenly joy, can appreciate our elation over the fact that our great effort did not prove to be in vain. Our goal was achieved. From now on there will be a species of hamster that will be fruitful and multiple even in captivity, and will be convenient for endless laboratory experimentation.
The supervisor of the animal colony devoted himself to raising the infants with love and admirable selflessness. Instead of the water she had received as a pup, the mother fed the infants milk, known since ancient times to be more beneficial than water. The sons sired and the daughters gave birth to "countless" new sons and daughters. And with the aid of God the hamster that was brought from Aleppo proved to be incredibly prolific, and all from one mother!
How marvelous are thy works, O Lord! (en)
- At the meeting, it was decided to hunt out this creature in one of the best fields, a field that the hamster had chosen to colonize. The sheik hired a few laborers and they dug in many places, destroying a good part of the wheat field. After several hours of hard work, they succeeded in raising from a depth of 8 feet, a complete nest, nicely upholstered, with a mother and her 11 young! Thinking that the mother would care for her infants and feed them, Georgeus put the whole family into a colony box. But his hopes were not fulfilled... I saw the mother hamster harden her heart and sever with ugly cruelty the head of the pup that approached her most closely . Natural mother-love led her to kill her dear child: "It is better that my infant die than that it be the object of an experiment performed on it by a member of the accursed human race."
When Georgeus saw this act of savagery, he quickly removed the murdering mother hamster and put her in a bottle of cyanide to kill her. (en)
- When he found out about the great catastrophe , he was aghast. Anyone who did not see the shock on that man's face has never seen a man smitten, shaken to the depths... I pitied him. His dismay increased as I described how difficult it was to get the creatures out of the depths of the earth, the great value of the discovery of this beautiful animal, that in the whole wide world, the only suitable habitat it could find was a long region between Aleppo and Homs; of all the bundles of dried grass, all the hay, all the sheves of wheat... (en)
- ... filled a large wire-mesh cage with tightly packed hay, leaving only a 5 cm, brightly illuminated space on top. In this space he placed his female. Seeking darkness, the female began to burrow into the hay. A day or two later the male was placed in the cage. It proceeded to chase the female – who was far more familiar with the environment than her assigned mate – and finally caught up with her. By then both were tired and the male was presumably quite aroused. I assume that their position in the burrow was more favorable to mating than to slaughter, and they mated. (en)
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- The domestication of the Syrian hamster began in the late 1700s when naturalists cataloged the Syrian hamster, also known as Mesocricetus auratus or the golden hamster. In 1930 medical researchers captured Syrian hamster breeding stock for animal testing. Further domestication led this animal to become a popular pet. Wild Syrian hamsters become tame in a matter of days after being captured and handled by humans. Wild hamsters are quick to adapt to captivity and thrive in a laboratory setting. (en)
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- Domestication of the Syrian hamster (en)
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