The 31st International Hamster Conference just took place in Cologne. The focus: protecting the endangered European hamster. Researchers from all over the world exchanged ideas and visited places in the Cologne area where it was successfully resettled.
Rhein-Erft district/Pulheim (me). The first releases of field hamsters into the wild took place in Pulheim and Rommerskirchen in 2019. As part of the “European hamster” species aid project, numerous animals were released. As a result, the local inventory has recovered slightly. There are now more than 700 animals living in the wild across North Rhine-Westphalia.
128 animal “new residents” were released into the wild in the Pulheim area in May 2019 as part of the “Feldhamster NRW” species protection program in order to stabilize the occurrence of the species in NRW. When the species aid project began its work in 2016, things looked completely different: at that point, the European hamster was almost extinct in North Rhine-Westphalia. There were only a few animals left in the area around Zülpich that had to be intercepted for breeding purposes. Today their descendants are once again populating the Börde landscapes of the Rhineland. “Species loss is, along with the climate crisis, the second major ecological threat to us and the way we live. We are actively counteracting the loss of biodiversity with ambitious nature conservation policies and successful species protection projects,” says Environment Minister Oliver Krischer. In the “European hamster” species aid project, various actors work together to protect the European hamster under the coordination of the State Office for Nature Conservation and Consumer Protection (LANUV). The project partners include biological stations, lower nature conservation authorities, district governments and the Chamber of Agriculture. The project is funded by the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport (MUNV).
In addition to breeding and reintroducing the field hamster, the focus of the project has also been improving its habitat since the beginning. Above all, agricultural harvesting methods, the use of pesticides, fewer places to retreat and free-roaming cats and dogs have contributed to an ever-lower incidence since the 1970s.
We worked on this together with nature conservation associations and farmers. Little by little, suitable habitats could be created again. The field hamster population in North Rhine-Westphalia was also able to recover as a result. At the end of the International Hamster Conference there was agreement: Despite great successes, the habitats and thus the continued existence of the rodents are still threatened in many places.
