Horcsog / Hamster - Information on the European Hamster please!

Hi,

I don't mind you asking, I just see little chance of getting you help :-)

Let's see how far we get:

In agricultural areas in Hungary rodents are poisoned and trapped indiscriminately with little regard for the environmental laws.

When you say hörcsög, most people will think of the "aranyhörcsög" (golden hamster), Mesocricetus auratus from pet shops, but I guess you are looking for  Cricetus cricetus, "mezei hörcsög" (field hamster) or "közönséges hörcsög" (common hamster). Pretty nasty beasts I must say :-)

Some googling turned up an guy who hunts them for the fur with traps, maybe you could try contacting him:

http://www.freeweb.hu/horcsogvadasz/

Lévai Miklós
Lévai Kft.
+36 30 911 9258

Tiszaföldvár, Bezerédi út 5.

horcsogvadasz@citromail.hu

GB/DEU Kontakt
Keresztes Gergely
+36 70 275 9933

I guess the last phone number belongs to someone who speaks English.

Good luck, PM me if you need more help!

Thank you so much for your reply, yes it is the field hamster i am looking for - you have given me some very useful information, especially the translation of the species - this is very helpful for searching

Yes, i have cme across this website before and emailed the man, but i didnt receive a reply - the man probably thinks i am mad, lol!!  He traps and kills them, and i am asking for them live!!

I will try again i think and see if i get any reply, but i will also try searching with the new names you have given me

Thank you very much for your help and information.

Kind Regards,

Tammy x

Tammy22 wrote:

Yes, i have cme across this website before and emailed the man, but i didnt receive a reply - the man probably thinks i am mad, lol!!

More likely he does not understand English and thinks you are a nigerian scammer :-)

Try calling the "GB DEU Kontakt" person, I think it's supposed to be someone who speaks English and German.

Hello again

thank you for your advice - i have emailed again but an error message is returned saying that the email address does not exist   I have also tried ringing, but not getting any answer, but i have also sent a text message, so maybe i will get a reply.

A person that i know in the uk has managed to find someone who have a pair available, so obviously there are people out there who have these hamsters as pets, but i just cannot find them, despite spending hours searching online!  Obviously this person is keeping this new contact two himself!

Can anyone recommend anything else for me to try?  Any other things to search for?  Is there a list somewhere of pest control services?  Is there a list of farms in hungary?  I would be willing to contact farms to see if they have this hamster as a pest on their land, so any help in that direction would be great

I really am willing to try anything at the moment, so any more advice or info would be extremely welcome!!

Tammy x

Well, hamsters do hibernate, so perhaps businesses based on them operate at lower intensity over the winter too :-)

The right search term for "pest control" is most likely "rágcsálóírtás" (rodent extermination). "Pest" is the name of the eastern part of Budapest, not what you think :-)

List of farms? The whole countryside is farms :-)
Except farmers don't have much of a web presence, and don't speak English.

There's also this:
http://www.allatsziget.hu/

What about contacting Budapest Zoo?

They are almost certain to speak English or German.