Djungarian Hamster - in The Wild

In The Wild

In the wild, the Djungarian hamster's fur changes colour in the winter. This adaptation helps them to evade predators in the snow-covered steppes of winter. The Djungarian hamster digs tunnels one metre deep leading to ground burrows where they can sleep, raise their young and hide from predators. The weasel is one of the Djungarian hamsters main predators. Most of these burrows have six entrances. In the summer time, the burrows are lined with moss. To keep the burrow warm in the winter, the Djungarian hamster closes all but one entrance and lines the burrows with animal fur or wool that it finds. The temperature inside the burrow is usually 16.7 °C (62.1 °F). Djungarian hamsters sometimes live in the semi-deserts in Central Asia. They also live in the dry steppes and wheat or alfalfa fields as well as on small fields in the forests of the region around Minusinsk. The fur on the Djungarian hamster's feet protect the feet from the cold ground from in the cold climates in the wild. The population density is highly varied. In 1968, the first four examples of the Djungarian hamster were caught in Western Siberia and brought to the Max Planck Institute in Germany.