But have you ever wondered how a hamster, which only weighs about 120 to 160 grams, could mash so much food into its face, its head can actually triple in size? And instead of all of that stored food becoming a soggy, mushy mess of crumbs and saliva inside those cheek pouches, when it comes time to retrieve everything, it looks brand new! Whats going on here? As the video reveals, those cheek pouches arent just in the hamsters cheeks - they extend all the way down TO ITS HIPS, allowing it to carry an entire bowl full of treats around in its flanks. And because hamster cheek pouches dont contain saliva glands, everything is kept fresh and dry during the transit back to its artificial burrow. Native to the arid landscapes of Syria and Turkey, golden hamsters evolved their cheek pouches so they could take full advantage of food wherever it happens to turn up. Its not always practical to eat it right then and there on the spot, so they stuff it inside and take it back to their burrows for later. Theyre so good at this, that when Jewish biologist Israel Aharoni travelled to Turkey during the 1930s to study the species or the first time, he said the golden hamsters name in the local Arabic dialect, أبو جراب, roughly translates to mister saddlebags. Golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) - also known as Syrian hamsters - are the most common species of hamster in the world, but theyre scarcely spotted in the wild. Estimates tentatively put their wild population at fewer than 2,500 mature individuals, which has led the ICUN to classify them as vulnerable to extinction. sciencealert/watch-here-s-why-tiny-hamsters-can-eat-tiny-burritos-according-to-science
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 03:23:30 +0000
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