# Hamster article **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 15, 2007, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110 "2007-06-15T11:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/1 "2007-06-15T11:32:00Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhamsters.htm](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhamsters.htm) Excellent article about hamsters. I read the story of the enraged scientist dunking the murderous mama hamster in a botle of cyanide in Joel Achenbach’s _Why Things Are_ books years ago, but this provided all the details that I never knew. I had no idea a hamster could sever a baby hamster’s head in one bite, although if their teeth are anything like my guinea pig’s teeth I guess it’s no surprise. I did see a typo: the end says “Although golden hamsters have been often been considered rare in the wild…”, which I believe contains one “been” too many. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/2 "2007-06-15T14:54:27Z")
[This](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhamsters.htm) is simply an outstanding Staff Report. Well-written, humor in the right places, and highly informative. I had no idea that most golden hamsters today were the likely descendants of a hamster “Eve” from the 1930s. Well done! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/3 "2007-06-15T14:55:56Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] [This](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhamsters.htm) is simply an outstanding Staff Report. Well-written, humor in the right places, and highly informative. I had no idea that most golden hamsters today were the likely descendants of a hamster “Eve” from the 1930s. Well done! [/QUOTE] And somehow I missed the existing thread. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/4 "2007-06-15T15:56:57Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] And somehow I missed the existing thread. ☹ [/QUOTE] I’ll merge the two threads. **samclem** ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/5 "2007-06-15T18:49:37Z")
Agreed, that is one fascinating piece of research - who would have imagined there was such a story behind them? Kudos, Colibri. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/6 "2007-06-15T18:55:45Z")
Let me be the fourth do commend you on an excellent piece. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/7 "2007-06-16T00:51:18Z")
I’m not much of a pet person myself, but for a few years I owned some hamsters: my dad thought that I might like the cute little gals and wasn’t easily disuaded. He could be annoying that way. Anyhow, while I had them, I cared for them as best I could. Learned some things in the process. He gave me a pair of them, thinking they would keep each other company. Females, because my dad at least had the sense to know that raising hamster families might be more than I cared to take on. Anyhow, after watching them fight too often, I finally learned that hamsters really don’t like each other - so, separate cages for them. The other thing that every hamster owner knows is that they are nocturnal, and that they really, really need to run - so if the wheel is even a little bit squeaky, the cage MUST go in the other room. Yes, they were cute little gals. ---
**Author:** ![Kokopilau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Kokopilau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kokopilau)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/8 "2007-06-18T18:56:20Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] Agreed, that is one fascinating piece of research - who would have imagined there was such a story behind them? Kudos, Colibri. [/QUOTE] Indeed! You never see stuff like THAT on Hamtaro! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/9 "2007-06-18T22:58:50Z")
Thanks for the kind words. It was a fun report to write. I think one of the most interesting things about the story is the great range of variation now present in domestic breeds, even though they are all descended from a single individual. PS. The typo mentioned in the OP has been fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/10 "2007-06-19T16:04:06Z")
I never imagined that there was such an interesting story behind the humble hamster. And it was very entertainingly told **Colibri**! ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/11 "2007-06-19T16:15:57Z")
Great article, but it leaves me wondering: are there no adverse genetic consequences to the hamster race from the incestuous coupling of the founding members? I’m guessing not, but is that just because of luck, or does it have something to do with the nature of hamsters? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/12 "2007-06-19T16:43:20Z")
There’s nothing unusual about hamsters with regards to inbreeding. With respect to the original litter, among them each gene could have been represented by up to four different alleles (variant forms), two each from the mother and father. Serious problems due to inbreeding result when the population remains small over many generations, which can result in the loss of alleles due to chance. Because the original captive population grew exponentially, it probably retained nearly all the genetic variability present in the original litter. While its variability would have been small relative to the wild population, it was sufficient to avoid inbreeding depression. Besides that, the very short generation time and very rapid expansion of the captive population allowed many chances for new mutations to take place (although the mutation rate itself would not have been any higher than normal). These new mutations are undoubtedly the main source of the coat color and coat type variants now present. Given that hamsters mature rapidly and have several generations per year, about 5,000-10,000 “hamster years” have passed since the founding of the captive population. ---
**Author:** ![eightoh9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@eightoh9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eightoh9)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/13 "2007-06-19T17:17:38Z")
The interesting thing to me about this article is that not only do we learn the pedigree of the hamsters, but we also learn about the pedigrees of the Jews involved in the history. It was definitely and interesting time in history. I’d like to know the pedigrees of the non-Jews as well. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/14 "2007-06-19T17:35:09Z")
[QUOTE=eightoh9] …I’d like to know the pedigrees of the non-Jews as well. [/QUOTE] Well, regardless of what the spurious _Protocols of the Hamsters of Aleppo_ says, they didn’t bite the heads off any of _their_ kids. Great Staff Report. I learned a lot. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/15 "2007-06-19T18:14:02Z")
The British Hamster Club?! I’d rather be a Mouseketeer! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/16 "2007-06-19T18:23:58Z")
[QUOTE=eightoh9] I’d like to know the pedigrees of the non-Jews as well. [/QUOTE] Which non-Jews? Alexander and Patrick Russell? George Robert Waterhouse? James Henry Skene? Sheikh El Beled? Georgius Khalil Tah’an? ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/17 "2007-06-19T18:50:18Z")
**Colibri** , thanks for your answer about the inbreeding. Now for a follow-on question: do non-human mammals have any way, other than dispersal, of avoiding brother-sister coupling? Put another way, if a hamster female had two potential mates at her disposal, one her brother and one not, would she tend to choose the one who was not her brother? If not, it seems to me that through sheer chance, brother-sister couplings would be fairly frequent in the animal kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/18 "2007-06-19T19:17:13Z")
Yes, it turns out that both mice and humans are able to recognize differences in genes for the “Major Histocompatability Complex” through their sense of smell, and avoid mating with individuals whose MHC genes are too similar (who are also likely to be related). > **[MHC genes, body odours, and odour preferences](https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article/15/9/1269/1874025)** > > Increasing evidence indicates that the highly polymorphic genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence odour and mating preferences in house mi ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/19 "2007-06-19T19:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] Thanks for the kind words. It was a fun report to write. I think one of the most interesting things about the story is the great range of variation now present in domestic breeds, even though they are all descended from a single individual. [/QUOTE] Unless parthenogenesis was involved, presumably they are descended from four individuals, not just one. There may have been a single member of one of the genders, but there were apparently three members of the other gender in the gene pool. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110/20 "2007-06-19T20:04:49Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] Yes, it turns out that both mice and humans are able to recognize differences in genes for the “Major Histocompatability Complex” through their sense of smell, and avoid mating with individuals whose MHC genes are too similar (who are also likely to be related). [http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1269](http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1269) [/QUOTE] Cool! According to the article, it even works with humans… or at least those humans willing to sniff up other humans wearing two-day-old T-shirts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamster-article/408110.md?page=2)