{"id":67823,"date":"2026-08-05T16:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/?p=67823"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:11:18","slug":"scientists-from-iber-help-restoring-one-of-bulgarias-rarest-mammals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/?p=67823&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Scientists from IBER help restoring one of Bulgaria\u2019s rarest mammals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nine Romanian hamsters, also known as Dobrudzhan or black-breasted hamsters, were successfully released back into their natural habitat during the first reintroduction campaign for the species in 2026. The initiative was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at BAS<\/a>, in collaboration with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), Agrotime Ltd and volunteers.<\/p>\n

The experts dug artificial shelters (burrows) and installed protective metal cages to help the hamsters adapt to their new environment. The animals were fed fresh vegetables and a mixture of grains. During the adaptation period, they are under constant monitoring, including via installed camera traps.<\/p>\n

The chosen location is a harvested wheat field with natural grass cover and numerous unharvested ears of wheat providing food for the hamsters. The land is owned by Agrotime Ltd<\/a> which practises \u2018no-till farming\u2019, a method essential for the conservation of biodiversity.<\/p>\n

The Romanian hamster (Mesocricetus newtoni<\/em>) is an extremely rare mammal listed in Bulgaria\u2019s Red Data Book. Studies indicate the presence of just one stable population in Central Northern Bulgaria. The main aim of the scientists is to support the survival and recovery of this endangered species through breeding in captivity and subsequent reintroduction.<\/p>\n

The initiative is being implemented as part of the <\/em>\u201c<\/em>Securing the recovery of the Endangered Saker Falcon in Bulgaria and Southern Romania<\/em><\/a>\u201d <\/em>(LIFE20 NAT\/BG\/001162)<\/em> project which receives financial support from the European Union\u2019s LIFE programme.<\/em><\/p>\n

Video and photographs<\/em><\/a>: <\/em>Assoc. Prof. Dr<\/em>.<\/em> Yordan Koshev<\/em><\/a> (IBE<\/em>R<\/em>-BAS) and Dimitar Gradinarov (BSPB)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine Romanian hamsters, also known as Dobrudzhan or black-breasted hamsters, were successfully released back into their natural habitat during the first reintroduction campaign for the species in 2026. The initiative was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at BAS, in collaboration with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), Agrotime Ltd and volunteers. The experts dug artificial shelters (burrows) and installed protective metal cages to help the hamsters adapt to their new environment. The animals were fed fresh vegetables and a mixture of grains. During the adaptation period, they are under constant monitoring, including via installed camera traps. The chosen location is a harvested wheat field with natural grass cover and numerous unharvested ears of wheat providing […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":67817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1771],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biodiversity-bioresources-and-ecology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67825,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67823\/revisions\/67825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bas.bg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}