A hamster is a small mammal, a surprisingly attractive, mischievous animal from the order of rodents, the suborder of mice, and the family of earthmovers. Rodents make up 45% (by number of species) of all mammals. And this family includes about 390 species, including the South African hamster, Syrian golden hamsters, Russian dwarf hamsters, white-footed hamsters, highland hamsters, South American field hamsters, hairy-footed hamsters, dormouse, scorpion hamsters, Thomas's hamsters, giant rice new hamsters, cotton hamsters , fish-eating hamsters, chinchilla hamsters, Chinese hamsters, Pune hamster, Dzungarian hamster, Roborovsky hamster.

Body length from 5 to 50 cm, tail from barely noticeable to exceeding body length. Distinctive features: the chewing surface of the cheek teeth is tuberous; the tubercles on the lower and upper teeth are located in two longitudinal rows (the main difference from other mouse-like rodents). Hamsters are characterized by bare cheek pouches; in some species they are very voluminous. These rodents are distributed in South and North America (the largest number of species), in the temperate zone of Eurasia, Madagascar and only one species in South Africa.

In the Middle Urals there live only one species of hamster - the common hamster. It lives in deep burrows and hibernates in October, but in winter it can often be found active on the surface of the snow. In spring he wakes up early. Such a hamster can carry up to 72g of selected peas in its cheek pouches.

Hamsters are carriers of a number of infections and are used as laboratory animals and pets.

In our country, there are mainly two types of pets - Djungarian and Syrian. Djungarian hamsters can be easily distinguished from Syrian hamsters: they are much smaller and have a gray color with a longitudinal black stripe on the back. This species also includes dwarf hamsters, sometimes called Siberian.

But it is very difficult to distinguish Syrian hamsters from others. The fact is that they can be short-haired, long-haired or even hairless - bald. They differ in that they have four toes on the front legs and five on the hind legs (these signs helped me determine the type of my hamster). As the name of the animal already indicates, the hamster comes from Syria. The Syrian hamster was first described by the English scientist J.R. Waterhouse, who traveled in 1839. across Syria. He found only 2 copies of this animal. It turned out that this is a new species of rodent unknown to science. It took almost 100 years to discover them again. The amazing discovery was repeated in 1930. almost in the same place (near Aleppo, Syria).

A zoologist from Israel, professor at the University of Jerusalem I. Aharoni, managed to dig up a whole family of hamsters at a depth of 2.5 meters: a female and 12 small cubs. He put them in a cage, but only brought four of them to England. They soon gave birth to offspring. It turned out that hamsters are unpretentious, easily breed in captivity and are tamed. Over the course of several years, the hamsters multiplied greatly. From England, people transported them to America and a number of other countries, including Russia. They have recently been "discovered" as ideal pets and have become very popular. These hamsters quickly get used to people, become tame and willingly communicate with their owners. All hamsters kept in captivity today trace their origins to these animals captured in Syria, so we can say that they are all related to each other. This means that their owners should not only take care of their pet, but also be friends with each other, no matter where they live!

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