When Hamster Meets Elk (9/268)

When Hamster Meets Elk (9/268)

Only a few people know that it lives in Bavaria or have ever even seen it. It has black button-eyes, pretty fur in three different colours and its name is the common hamster. It's no wonder that hardly anyone knows this "outsized golden hamster" for it is threatened by extinction. Only a few decades ago this was quite different. Then it was one of the most common small mammals and up and into the 1970s it was regarded as a pest. As a harvest vermin it was gassed, poisoned or driven out of its burrow with water and then battered to death. In many regions that were once traditional hamster habitats it has now disappeared completely. But if one follows the press reports one gains a very different impression. Although construction projects are nowadays forbidden to build on hamster fields, in contrast to commonly-held opinions hamsters have in fact never endangered a construction project. At present the most publicised conflict is the one between a population of common hamsters and the plans of a well-known Swedish furniture company. But hamsters here, hamsters there, the planned branch near Würzburg is to be built - and an aid programme has been launched to protect the endangered common hamster.

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• The Guinea Pig and his Grumpy Neighbors
• Raccoon Party
• Tiger Country
• Portugal - The Return of the Wild Creatures