Editing Hamster (section)

==Behavior==
[[File:Cream-colored long-hair pet Syrian hamster with banana.jpg|thumb|right|Pet Syrian hamster examines a banana]]

===Feeding===
A behavioral characteristic of hamsters is [[Hoarding (animal behavior)|food hoarding]]. They carry food in their spacious cheek pouches to their underground storage chambers. When full, the cheeks can make their heads double, or even triple in size.<ref name="Fox"/> Hamsters lose weight during the autumn months in anticipation of winter. This occurs even when hamsters are kept as pets and is related to an increase in exercise.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0090253 |pmid=24603871 |pmc=3946023 |title=Effect of Exercise on Photoperiod-Regulated Hypothalamic Gene Expression and Peripheral Hormones in the Seasonal Dwarf Hamster Phodopus sungorus |journal=PLOS ONE|volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=e90253 |year=2014 |last1=Petri |first1=Ines |last2=Dumbell |first2=Rebecca |last3=Scherbarth |first3=Frank |last4=Steinlechner |first4=Stephan |last5=Barrett |first5=Perry |bibcode=2014PLoSO...990253P |doi-access=free  | issn = 1932-6203}}</ref>

===Social behavior===
[[File:Hamster fight.jpg|thumb|right|Hamsters fighting]]
Most hamsters are strictly solitary. If housed together, acute and chronic [[stress (psychological)|stress]] might occur,<ref name="Kuhnen, (2001)"/> and they might fight fiercely, sometimes fatally. [[Phodopus|Dwarf hamster]] species might tolerate [[siblings]] or same-gender unrelated hamsters if introduced at an early enough age, but this cannot be guaranteed. Hamsters communicate through body language to one another and even to their owner. They communicate by sending a specific scent using their scent glands and also show body language to express how they are feeling.<ref name="caringpets.org"/>

===Chronobiology===
Hamsters can be described as [[nocturnal]] or [[crepuscular]] (active mostly at dawn and dusk). Khunen writes, "Hamsters are nocturnal rodents who are active during the night",<ref name="Kuhnen, (2001)"/> but others have written that because hamsters live underground during most of the day, only leaving their burrows for about an hour before sundown and then returning when it gets dark, their behavior is primarily crepuscular. Fritzsche indicated although some species have been observed to show more nocturnal activity than others, they are all primarily crepuscular.<ref name="Fritz"/>

In the wild Syrian hamsters can [[hibernate]] and allow their body temperature to fall close to ambient temperature. This kind of [[thermoregulation]] diminishes the [[metabolic rate]] to about 5% and helps the animal to considerably reduce the need for food during the winter.<ref name="Kuhnen, (2001)"/> Hibernation can last up to one week but more commonly last 2–3 days.<ref name="britishhamsterassociation.org.uk">{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishhamsterassociation.org.uk/get_article.php?fname=journal/hibernation.html|title=Welcome to the British Hamster Association Web Site}}</ref> When kept as house pets the Syrian hamster does not hibernate.<ref name="britishhamsterassociation.org.uk"/>

===Burrowing behavior===
All hamsters are excellent diggers, constructing burrows with one or more entrances, with galleries connected to chambers for nesting, food storage, and other activities.<ref name="Fox"/> They use their fore- and hindlegs, as well as their snouts and teeth, for digging. In the wild, the burrow buffers extreme ambient temperatures, offers relatively stable climatic conditions, and protects against predators. Syrian hamsters dig their burrows generally at a depth of {{convert|70|cm|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Gattermann et al., (2001)">{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0952836901000851 |title=Notes on the current distribution and the ecology of wild golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) |journal=Journal of Zoology |volume=254 |issue=3 |pages=359–365 |year=2001 |last1=Gattermann |first1=R. |last2=Fritzsche |first2=P. |last3=Neumann |first3=K. |last4=Al-Hussein |first4=I. |last5=Kayser |first5=A. |last6=Abiad |first6=M. |last7=Yakti |first7=R. }}</ref> A burrow includes a steep entrance pipe ({{convert|4|-|5|cm|in|abbr=on}} in diameter), a nesting and a hoarding chamber and a blind-ending branch for urination. Laboratory hamsters have not lost their ability to dig burrows; in fact, they will do this with great vigor and skill if they are provided with the appropriate substrate.<ref name="Kuhnen, (2001)"/>

Wild hamsters will also appropriate tunnels made by other mammals; the Djungarian hamster, for instance, uses paths and burrows of the [[pika]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/animal/hamster#ref756119|title=hamster {{!}} Facts & Breeds|last=Musser|first=Guy|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-02-01|language=en}}</ref>