Domesticated Hamsters All Trace Back to One Pair in Syria

The domestication of cats and dogs, the two most popular house pets worldwide, has received a lot of attention. The majority of us are aware that wolves were used to domesticate dogs long ago, and cats appear to have domesticated themselves alongside humans as a seemingly deliberate action to secure food and shelter. However, many other animals, including hamsters, are kept as pets by people.

The majority of us have probably never encountered a wild hamster, yet they do exist. The current domestic hamster may be traced to a particular breeding couple from Syria. After Aharoni seized the hamsters, events rapidly became out of control. The mother consumed many infants. A few more ran away and were never located. However, one set of siblings reproduced, as hamsters often do. They turned became the Adam and Eve of the contemporary hamster universe. They have 150 offspring. They were shipped to laboratories all over the world, where they kept reproducing. Nowadays, it is almost a given that any hamster you see in a pet shop anywhere in the world is descended from that breeding pair.