This is a Wikipediauser page. This is not an encyclopedia article or the talk page for an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user whom this page is about may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia. The original page is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Wikihobby.
The European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) is a species of hamster native to grasslands and agricultural areas across Eurasia, from Belgium and eastern France to Russia and western China. The largest living hamster species, it can reach 30 centimetres (12in) in body length and has brown, black and white fur. It lives in underground burrows, where it stores food gathered in its expandable cheek pouches, and hibernates during winter. Once widespread and regarded as an agricultural pest, the European hamster has undergone a dramatic population decline, with intensive farming, habitat loss and persecution among possible causes. It has been classified as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2020. This European hamster was photographed in a cemetery in Meidling, in Vienna, Austria.Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp