Saw seven wild hamsters today, which is not too bad :)
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@JubalBarca
Wild hamsters?? Where are you??@CleoQc Vienna, Austria
These are European Field Hamsters, a different species to the Dwarf and Syrian ones that were domesticated into pet hamsters (and these are much larger than a pet hamster too). Sadly they're also now critically endangered with a very real risk of extinction within the next 20 years, but some of the old Vienna cemeteries are among the best places to see them.
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@JubalBarca it sounds pretty fantastic, tbh! Yay, wild hamsters!
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@JubalBarca it sounds pretty fantastic, tbh! Yay, wild hamsters!
@vicorva On a personal perspective any number of wild hamsters is definitely nice! But the population in the cemetery I think isn't as strong as it was a few years ago: I think if they were in the numbers we had in 2020-ish I'd probably be seeing more like twice that number on an hour or so's walk around the place. Hopefully they'll recover alright, but as an endangered species the population is a bit fragile.
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@vicorva On a personal perspective any number of wild hamsters is definitely nice! But the population in the cemetery I think isn't as strong as it was a few years ago: I think if they were in the numbers we had in 2020-ish I'd probably be seeing more like twice that number on an hour or so's walk around the place. Hopefully they'll recover alright, but as an endangered species the population is a bit fragile.
@JubalBarca @vicorva I feel that wild hamsters can only exist because some time in the distant past some pet hamsters escaped captivity and started breeding in the wild.
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@JubalBarca @vicorva I feel that wild hamsters can only exist because some time in the distant past some pet hamsters escaped captivity and started breeding in the wild.
@masp @vicorva Yeah there are some animals where we're used to think about them being domesticated and having a wild counterpart (esp eg dogs, maybe sheep) and some where it feels super odd if you're not used to the actual wild animal (hamsters, but I think chickens come into a similar category).
This species are very visibly not pet hamsters though in that they're a lot lot chonkier, the biggest ones are closer to a guinea pig than the size you'd expect a pet hamster to be!
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Them's the one with the black bellies, indicating "You •really• don't want to mess with me!"?
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@JubalBarca @vicorva I feel that wild hamsters can only exist because some time in the distant past some pet hamsters escaped captivity and started breeding in the wild.
If you look closely, you'll note that the hamster's underside has black fur, not white. Very much a marker of Not Domesticated. In fact, from what I've heard, you bother these folks wrong, & they are more than happy mess you up.
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@JubalBarca
They're indeed amazing . I have got an opportunity to see them for my first time. Thanks so much for sharing. -
@JubalBarca wild hamsters???
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@CleoQc Vienna, Austria
These are European Field Hamsters, a different species to the Dwarf and Syrian ones that were domesticated into pet hamsters (and these are much larger than a pet hamster too). Sadly they're also now critically endangered with a very real risk of extinction within the next 20 years, but some of the old Vienna cemeteries are among the best places to see them.
@JubalBarca
Thanks, i had no idea anywhere in Europe had wild hamsters. Pretty cool! Not cool that they face extinction though. That's just horrible. -
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