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From an Agrophile to a Synurbist: Settlement of the Common Hamster (Cricetus cricetus) into an Urban Environment

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Abstract

A review summarizing the data, both original and literature, on the development of the urban environment by smaller mammals is presented, the common hamster serving as an example. Initially, having predominantly inhabited the forested steppe zone, this species first essentially became a hemi-agrophile and, along with the development of agriculture, it occupied the margins of fields, this providing it with good food supply throughout the year. Changes in farming culture (fragmentary fields replaced with vast areas of arable land occupied by monocultures and the use of poisons and fertilizers) led to a shift in the ecological optimum of the species to areas occupied by gardens, kitchen gardens, and urban ecosystems. This has provoked changes in the genetic structure of populations, a greater (compared to suburbs) diversity of alleles of the main histocompatibility complex responsible for the resistance to pathogens, a reduced hibernation period up to its complete abandonment, and a decreased aggressiveness to conspecifics which allows for more burrows to be arranged in a limited space and the general storage to be consumed. Using food wastes as additional food resources has appeared possible, and this may have led to changes in the digestive and other systems. All this has allowed the common hamster to exist successfully in urbanized environments, despite the reduction of life expectancy due to a large number of stressors (parasitic load, pollution, etc.). Not all of the above traits are assumed to have been formed in the process of synurbization. Many previously acquired adaptations could have turned out to be effective along with the development of urban areas. Obviously, the way the common hamster has developed from a noncommensal species to an agrophile and a synurbist is not unique, as many other mammalian and bird species have passed or are passing through it at present.

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Notes

  1. Synurbization means “the release of a population from the regulatory effect of the ecosystem and the process of adaptation to the specific conditions of the urban environment, the formation of new regulatory connections, by analogy with synanthropization” (Andrzejewski et al., 1978).

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Funding

This work was carried out within the framework of a State Assignment of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, project no. FFER-2021-0004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    A. V. Surov, T. N. Karmanova, E. A. Katsman & N. Yu. Feoktistova

  2. Federal State Sanitary and Epidemiological Center in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, 295034, Simferopol, Republic of Crimea, Russia

    E. S. Zaitseva

Authors
  1. A. V. Surov
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  2. T. N. Karmanova
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  3. E. S. Zaitseva
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  4. E. A. Katsman
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  5. N. Yu. Feoktistova
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to A. V. Surov, T. N. Karmanova, E. S. Zaitseva, E. A. Katsman or N. Yu. Feoktistova.

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Surov, A.V., Karmanova, T.N., Zaitseva, E.S. et al. From an Agrophile to a Synurbist: Settlement of the Common Hamster (Cricetus cricetus) into an Urban Environment. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 50, 2517–2527 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359023090388

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359023090388

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