The Rewilding Ukraine team is engaged in long-term efforts to create a wilder and healthier Tarutino Steppe. The ongoing reintroduction of European hamsters will help restore local food webs, enhance biodiversity, and boost nature-based tourism.
A group of 13 European hamsters has just been released onto the Tarutino Steppe in Ukraine, part of the Danube Delta restoration landscape. This marks the third release of an ongoing reintroduction programme overseen by the Rewilding Ukraine team, in collaboration with Kyiv Zoo and the Tarutino Steppe Nature and Ethnographic Park. Groups of hamsters were previously released in 2022 and 2023, with the next release scheduled for 2025.
The increasing presence of these diminutive rodents, once widespread across Ukraine, will contribute to creating a wilder and ecologically healthier steppe landscape, helping restore local food webs and enhance biodiversity. The reintroduction will also help boost nature-based tourism.
Beneficial impact
Compared to hamsters kept as pets, wild European hamsters are quite large – they can reach up to 30 cm in length and weigh more than 500 g. They spend most of their time underground in burrows, emerging at dawn and dusk to feed mostly on plants. On the Tarutino Steppe, they will help disperse seeds, while their burrows will create habitats for other wildlife and improve soil fertility. The animals themselves are important prey for various birds and mammals. In addition, they will attract tourists, supporting the development of the area’s nature-based economy.
The newly arrived hamsters have been released into two large acclimatisation enclosures, where the Rewilding Ukraine team has created several artificial dens. Specially constructed walls prevent predators from digging into these enclosures, while netting protects the hamsters from predatory birds. After several weeks, the enclosures will be opened to release the animals into the wild. Following their release, the hamsters will continue to be monitored to ensure they adapt well to their new environment.
“The hamsters are settling in well in their enclosures,” says Mykhailo Rusin, a specialist at Kyiv Zoo’s Restoration and Reintroduction Centre. “This latest reintroduction is another important step towards safeguarding the future of this significant animal and establishing a thriving population on the Tarutino Steppe.”
Critical conservation
Kyiv Zoo has been breeding and returning European hamsters to the wild for several years as part of a programme to restore populations of rare and endangered species across Ukraine. The European hamster once inhabited steppes and forest-steppes across Europe and was resident in most of Ukraine. However, it has almost disappeared due to habitat destruction, environmental pollution, and extermination as an agricultural pest. In 2009, it was listed in Ukraine’s Red Book, and today holds critically endangered status on the IUCN’s Red List. On the Tarutino Steppe, the hamsters will benefit from environmental protection and an increasingly wild landscape.
The ongoing war in Ukraine, which has led to the loss and degradation of many steppe and grassland areas, poses an additional threat to the hamsters. However, the Tarutino Steppe, located far from the conflict zone, can become a sanctuary for hamsters and other wildlife and may aid post-war nature recovery efforts.
In recent years, the Rewilding Ukraine team, alongside the community of Borodino and the Department of Ecology of Odessa, has made significant progress towards creating the Budzhak Steppes National Natural Park – a proposed national park that would encompass the Tarutino Steppe and adjacent steppe areas.
The bigger picture
Rewilding Ukraine’s hamster reintroduction programme is part of scaled-up rewilding efforts in the Danube Delta restoration landscape, initiated in 2019 with funding from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme through Rewilding Europe.
Hamsters are just one of several native herbivorous animals returned to the Tarutino Steppe by the Rewilding Ukraine team. Populations of kulan (Asiatic ass), European fallow deer, and steppe marmots are also doing well. These efforts aim to create a wilder steppe, shaped more by natural processes such as grazing and well-balanced predator-prey dynamics.
This article was originally published on the Rewilding Danube Delta website. To find out more about the Danube Delta restoration landscape, visit their project page.
