Hamsters are adorable fuzzy rodents that look like they were made to be pets, but they were wild animals long before humans domesticated them. However, here in the USA, we’ve never seen them running around with mice, rats, moles, and other tiny creatures, so where do they come from?
Wild hamsters live in the wild all over the Eurasian continent, mostly in arid regions. European species live across from Belgium to Russia and south to the Mediterranean. Other species live in the Middle East, Russia, China, and Central Asia countries.
In this article, I’ll tell you all about the different wild hamster species, where they live, and some distinctions between wild and domesticated hamsters. So, let’s get into it!
What Regions Do Hamsters Live In in the Wild?
The earliest known wild hamsters come from several regions in the world.
The regions hamsters live in in the wild are the Middle East, western Europe, southeastern Europe, and northern China. However, most American pet hamsters came from northern Syria and southern Turkey.
The earliest known records of wild hamsters, it was written by Scottish physician Patrick Russell in a book called the Natural History of Aleppo, published in 1794.
However, the first person to name the Syrian hamster as a species was George Robert Waterhouse, who wrote a description of the Syrian hamster in 1839.
In 1930, Israel Aharoni captured a female hamster as a scientific pet and learned to breed them in captivity.
Some hamsters went to the US in 1936. By 1939, hamsters were already popular pets.
However, the word “hamster” itself comes from the German “hamstern,” meaning “to hoard.” This choice of a name reflects the animal’s tendency to hoard food in its mouth and home.
These rodents have 26 species that developed in the wild worldwide. Five have had some of their population caught and domesticated over the centuries. The three most common are the Syrian, the Roborovski dwarf, and the Campbell dwarf.
The European species can grow as large as 13 inches (33 cm) or as small as 2 inches (5.08 cm).
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Hamster Varieties and Where They Live in the Wild
There are many hamster species from Asia, Europe, and Russia. Here are some of the most common varieties and where they live in the wild:
- The Syrian hamster is the most popular pet hamster in the USA. As its name implies, it is from Syria and the surrounding desert areas.
- Roborovski or Robo dwarf hamsters come from colder deserts in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan and China. They have furry feet to help them travel on the sand. While some are kept as pets, only the wild ones have a coat that can turn white.
- Chinese hamsters inhabit northwestern China and Mongolia. They have longer tails than most hamsters, and they use them to help navigate and grip the rocky terrain they live in.
- Dwarf Winter White Russian hamsters come from the overlapping area where Chinese and Robo hamsters originate. So dwarf winter white Russians are in northwestern China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.
- Cambell’s dwarf hamsters live where the dwarf winter white Russians live in China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. W.C. Campbell was the first to record them in 1902.
- European hamsters range from Belgium to Russia and south to the Mediterranean.
- Gray dwarf hamsters live anywhere west to east, from Eastern Europe to western China. Then from north to south, they live from Russia to the Middle East.
- The Gansu hamster hails from Asia but is most associated with China.
- The greater long-tailed hamster is exclusive to China. It inhabits much of the country and takes advanta