After six months, field hamsters awaken from their hibernation between the end of April and the beginning of May and leave their burrows. Just the right time to start advising farmers who want to contribute to the protection of the species with field hamster-friendly farming as part of the "Feldhamsterland" project.
During these visits, the consultants also use a questionnaire developed by the IfLS. This questionnaire is used to record the current management of arable land and planned protection measures as well as the challenges and needs of farmers.
The field hamster is a strictly protected species according to the Federal Nature Conservation Act, but has disappeared in many places in the meantime.
Particularly the intensification of agriculture contributes to the fact that food and cover for the rodents become scarce. With the project "Feldhamsterland" the German Wildlife Foundation wants to counteract this.
The project will be carried out over five years with three project partners in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is supported by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with funds from the Federal Environment Ministry in the Federal Programme Biological Diversity. The IfLS is responsible for the evaluation.
Further information about the project can be found on the following pages:
https://www.feldhamster.de/ (German)
Contact persons at IfLS:
Jörg Schramek (schramek[at]ifls.de) and Heike Nitsch (nitsch[at]ifls.de)
