When I was a child in the 1930os," recalls 86-year-old farmer Marcel Riegel, "hamsters were incredibly easy to catch. There were so many that they ate bare patches into our alfalfa and wheat field."
Now he never sees them.
"Before the land consolidations of the 197oS," Riegel continues, "we had hamsters, hares, partridges, orchards and vineyards in the Alsace. They've all gone: replaced by maize. The last wild hamster I saw was in 2000. My dog disturbed it, but the creature bravely stood its ground and chattered loudly."
I'm talking to Riegel near Strasbourg in eastern France about le grand hamster d'Alsace. Until 2011 - when I read in a newspaper that France faced a €17 million fine from the EU for failing to protect its hamsters - I had no idea this charismatic mammal existed in the wild so close to home.
But after establishing that the story was neither an April Fool joke nor a piece about the French denying their pets exercise wheels and nutty treats, it was a revelation to discover that the common, or black-bellied, hamster has an extensive Eurasian range, from its current westernmost limit in the Alsace east as far as the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Europe's only member of the globally widespread Cricetinae subfamily, this rodent is something of a giant. It grows four times larger than the familiar golden Syrian domesticated variety of hamster - so big, in fact, that it was once referred to as the 'Strasbourg marmot'. Moreover, the species was so abundant in Alsace that, until 1993, it was officially classified as an agricultural pest and routinely exterminated.
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Today, the 'Strasbourg marmot is rarely encountered in Western Europe, since its populations (particularly in Germany and Holland) have been fragmented by intensified agriculture and urbanisation. In Alsace, the hamster has disappeared from four-fifths of its range since 2000. The latest estimates suggest that 500-1,000 individuals remain on French soil (or beneath it, as the creature spends 9o per cent of its life underground).
As I did my research, everything I found out about this black-bellied rodent hinted that it was the architect of its own downfall. The deep, loamy agricultural soils of the Alsace proved perfect for excavating stable burrows, while the region's arable crops gave the hamster plentiful food and the shelter it needed to hide from birds of prey and foxes. For centuries, the species managed an uneasy co-existence with farmers.
This equilibrium was shattered in the 1970s as subsidy driven mechanised farming across Alsace eradicated small fields and depleted crop diversity to produce today's monocultural prairies of intensively irrigated maize.
It condemned hamsters to emerge from hibernation into ploughed fields many hectares wide, devoid of food or shelter, leaving them vulnerable to predation by foxes and buzzards.
The species woes resurfaced after the July harvest: the land was stripped of cover at precisely the time it had to forage to build up several kilograms of food stores to survive hibernation.
How big are black-bellied hamsters?
Males are bigger at between 20-27cm long (without the tail) and weighing between 160-550g. Females are between 19-24cm long and weigh between 100-360g. Their tails are between 4-6cm.
What do black-bellied hamsters look like?
They are more heavily built and larger than domesticated hamsters, with patches of brown and white fur, and a black belly.
What do black-bellied hamsters eat?
About 80 per cent of their diet is vegetarian, including seeds, roots and tubers. Also takes insects, earthworms, voles and other small vertebrates.
What is their lifecycle?
Hibernates October to late March; in April and May, polygamous males breed with females. Each female produces 2-4 litters of 5-7 pups after an 18-20 day gestation. Pups are weaned at about three weeks.
Where do they live?
In Western Europe, from its current westernmost limit in the Alsace east as far as the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan. They favour arable farmland, open steppe and grasslands.
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Mark Stratton is a travel writer and radio presenter
