The cost of protecting wild hamsters has become a political animal in the Dutch city of Lemburg, where some estimate it has cost the town €20 million in the past two decades to protect the Korenwolf, or European wild hamster.
Among the costs, anti-hamster advocates say, are building projects that have been held up to protect habitat. The number in the area has fluctuated, running as high as 500 at one point, but today, despite being on the EU’s protection list, there are somewhere between 100 and 200 in the area. Although they can produce three litters a year, the young are considered tasty prey by buzzards, keeping the population down.
The local council shares the hamster protection budget with the EU. Pro-hamster forces claim that the animals are beneficial and help maintain populations of flowers and butterflies. They say the same amount of money would support a much larger population if local farmers helped create habitat by not cutting their crops so close to the ground.
Image: SGH Vienna/Wikimedia Commons
