Syrian Hamsters
In 1930, Aharoni set off to look for Syrian hamsters at the request of his colleague Saul Adler, a parasitologist who was looking for an easily breedable alternative to the Chinese hamster for research on the disease Leishmaniasis. Syrian hamsters had been discovered and named by George Robert Waterhouse in 1839 but had not been sighted since. Together with a Syrian guide named Georgius Khalil Tah'an, Aharoni managed to discover a nest containing a female and eleven young in the Aleppo region. However, cannibalism of one of the litter by the mother, and the subsequent death of the mother, meant that Aharoni had to hand-rear the pups during the journey back. The four that made it were bred successfully and used extensively in laboratories, before being introduced to the pet market in the 1940s.
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Famous quotes containing the word syrian:
“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)