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Children on TV and in motion pictures all the time appear to be maintaining hamsters and gerbils as pets. They’re small, look cute, and don’t have to be taken for a stroll. So why don’t all of us have hamsters and gerbils as pets in Australia?
The reply: biosecurity and biodiversity.
Gerbils aren’t allowed to be imported into Australia for any goal. And whereas sure hamsters can technically be imported dwell, that is solely strictly for tightly managed analysis functions.
Right here’s what it is advisable find out about why hamsters and gerbils might pose a biosecurity and biodiversity threat in Australia.
Learn extra: What’s avian flu, the illness afflicting viral TikTok emu Emmanuel?
Prepared to breed early, a number of litters a yr
Hamsters and gerbils threaten not simply native Australian animals, but in addition vegetation and broader ecosystems.
Hamsters and gerbils originate from arid and semi-arid environments, to which they’re nicely tailored.
Contemplating roughly 70% of Australia is arid or semi-arid land, hamsters and gerbils might survive and develop into a pest within the wild.
One research discovered hamsters may also efficiently set up populations in and round cities, adapting rapidly to city environments. Only some animals want to flee into the wild, survive and breed for a small drawback to show into a really massive one.
That’s as a result of hamsters can attain reproductive maturity fairly early, at about one month previous. They’ll produce as much as 5 litters a yr, and every litter can have greater than ten pups.
Gerbils attain reproductive maturity at only a few months previous, can have as much as eight pups in a litter and, as one veterinary guide put it, “start mating once more virtually instantly after the feminine offers beginning”.
A threat to ecosystems
If they’re launched or escape into the wild, hamsters and gerbils would compete with our native rodents for a similar meals assets.
They may additionally pose a threat of illness introduction, with each being a big threat to the survival of our native animals.
Australia has many native rodent species which have been right here for thousands and thousands of years. They’re various and ecologically essential, and characterize roughly 1 / 4 of all species of Australian mammals.
Nonetheless, previously 200 years there was a big decline within the variety of species, with many changing into extinct. Our native rodents are, in actual fact, amongst our most threatened teams of native mammals.
If hamsters and gerbils grew to become established within the wild in Australia, the results may very well be very vital.
So Australia considers the general threat to be too excessive, and importation of those animals as pets will not be allowed.
Importation of the Golden or Syrian hamster for analysis functions is allowed, however this requires a allow and the animals have to be stored in high-security amenities. Gerbils and hamsters have been utilized in scientific analysis for a very long time (and extra not too long ago as animal fashions to check COVID-19).
The Australian authorities’s Stay Import Checklist, which exhibits the plant and animals allowed to be imported dwell into Australia, is reviewed usually, and loads of work goes into assessing the dangers to Australia from unique species.
These dangers are weighed in opposition to the potential financial and social advantages of these species and a choice is made to guard Australia’s surroundings and agriculture, that are distinctive on this planet.
These safeguards are a part of Australia’s biosecurity system.
By supporting this method via small actions, like accepting that we are able to’t all the time have any pet species we’d like, we’re every doing our half to guard Australia’s surroundings, economic system and lifestyle.
Learn extra: Tiny tracks inform of historic paths made by gerbils and spiders on South Africa’s south coast
