The History of the Syrian Hamster

In this post, I will be looking in to the history of the Syrian hamster and the important events which have shaped its evolution.

The history of the Syrian or golden hamster and its origins is a somewhat vague tail of events which is heavily influenced by the medical research industry and a city in the north west of Syria called Aleppo.

The first accountable work which references the Syrian hamster dates back to 1794 when a Scottish physician named Alexander Russell cited its presence in his book “Natural History of Aleppo”. There is however, a degree of ambiguity in this claim due to the fact that Alexander Russell died in 1768 and it was his half-brother and herpetologist, Patrick who continued his work to release a revised edition in 1794.

…”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 more regular order. When they were laid loosely on the table, they formed a heap three times the bulk of the animals’ body. “

Although this is the earliest account of the Syrian or golden hamster, it was not actually declared as a new species until many years later as it may have been mistaken for the already identified common European hamster.

The Discovery of the Syrian Hamster

The Golden hamster, or Mesocricetus Auratus was not actually declared as a separate species until British zoologist, George Robert Waterhouse presented a female originating from Aleppo, Syria to the London zoological society in 1839.

Note: The Latin word Auratus or “gold, golden” paying reference to the colouring of the hamster when found in the wild. The colouring of Syrian hamsters today is extremely diverse due to selective breeding for the petting industry. The term Golden hamster seems to be used less and less amongst hamster owners as the new colourings seem less appropriate.

The next phase of the Golden hamster’s journey through history is relatively well known on account of the number of times I came across this story whilst carrying out my research on this subject.

The History of the Syrian Hamster, Aleppo

The sequence of events takes us back to Aleppo, Syria. The actual location or birthplace, if you like of the Golden hamster cannot be known for sure but it was certainly Aleppo which was credited during its discovery. I know that if I was looking for a golden hamster 150 years ago, knowing what I know now…I would have started looking in Aleppo.

Saul Alder, a parasitologist, had been using Chinese hamsters to conduct medical research in the 1920′s on Leishmaniasis, a disease transmitted by the bite of a sand-fly. No longer content to import his test subjects from abroad, Alder requested a colleague to go out and collect a new basis for his research, it is unknown if Alder was aware of the golden hamster at this point or had another species in mind for his work. The colleague in question was a certain Israel Aharoni, a Hebrew zoologist and it is believed that he was well aware of the Syrian hamster and with the help of local farmers, and eventually came across 1 mother and 11 of her young deep underground in a complete nest. The series of events surrounding this encounter appear to be well documented and although I am not a fan of simply copying and pasting the following paragraph is an extract from Aharoni’s memoirs which I have found whilst researching this topic (the article I am referring to is by Chris Henwood, while I want my account to be as good as possible, this is easily the best article I have read, thanks Chris!)

…”I saw the hamster harden her heart and sever with ugly cruelty the head of the pup that approached her most closely (each of the young measuring about 2.5 cms) 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 Georgius saw this act of savagery, he quickly removed the mother hamster (for she would surely kill them all) and put her in a bottle of cyanide to kill her”

You have got to feel sorry for the mother in this story, ironic that her death leads to so much life and ultimately, a new beginning for her species.

Aharoni and his wife hand reared the remaining 10 babies before eventually handing them over to be integrated into a lab based breeding programme. The programme was extremely successful and the Syrian hamster appeared in work carried out by Alder shortly thereafter.

You will no doubt by now be thinking that this all seems a bit harsh on the hamsters themselves, we are only talking about 90 years ago and there is not yet a single mention of Syrian hamsters being used for anything other than medical research. Don’t worry, we will shortly get too that but we are going to make a short but significant stop in Britain where the story goes on, and yes you guessed it…we are back in the lab

The Syrian Hamster arrives in Britain

British zoologist, Leonard Georg Goodwin was once again, using the Syrian hamster as test subjects in his research on Leishmaniasis within troops fighting in Europe. Goodwin is believed to have obtained his subjects from Jerusalem and within a short space of time was able to approve and release a drug amongst troops. Although there does not appear a great deal of evidence to support or deny this claim, Goodwin credits himself with introducing the species to the UK and that the majority of the Syrian hamsters in the petting industry descended from the colony he used in his research.

The Syrian hamster is today one of the most popular “small animals” (I should have put rodents, but I do not like that word) to be kept as pets. While it’s history has been closely linked to the medical research industry it cannot be denied that they bring joy to millions, including myself.