These Adorable Hamster Dads Take Fatherhood Seriously

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Most mammalian dads are pretty absent from their offspring’s lives. That sets the Djungarian hamster apart from its fellow fathers. These hamster dads are involved in the birth of their pups, care for them in infancy and even provide food during weaning. They also let the mother hamster go on cooldown walks outside of the burrow, which professor of veterinary medicine and hamster expert Katherine Wynne-Edwards thinks could be essential to the survival of the species in its superharsh environment. But there’s also some familiar mate selection at play: female Djungarian hamsters choose to mate with males who will provide quality parental care. Follow guest host Elah Feder’s work Recommended reading: Why Don't Bees Celebrate Father's Day? Men Are More Prepared for Fatherhood Than We Think E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was reported by Elah Feder and co-hosted by Rachel Feltman and Elah Feder. This episode was edited by Jeff DelViscio with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.
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0:36.2	For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
0:40.3	Parental care is costly. It uses up precious time, energy, and resources. And in the animal
0:47.3	world, it's usually the moms who bear the brunt of it. For most mammals, the concept of fatherhood
0:53.3	begins and ends at conception. So what drives
0:58.2	a father to defy evolutionary norms? Today's episode celebrates the superparent skills of a surprising
1:05.5	and adorable little critter. Our guide for this Father's Day Friday fascination is Ella Fetter, a freelance audio
1:12.6	producer, editor, and journalist. Here's Ella now. In mammals, good dads are the exception.
1:20.8	Male leopards, bears, orcas, they have a habit of toddling off after mating and leaving the mothers
1:26.3	to raise the kids.
1:27.8	So when you come across a mammal species with active doting dads, dads who actually
1:32.7	matter for their kids' survival, you pay attention.
1:36.2	And one of the most extreme cases of good fatherhood can be found in a dwarf hamster that
1:41.4	lives in the cold dry semi-deserts of Russia, China, and Mongolia.
1:46.0	Fidopis Cambeli, aka the Jungarian hamster.
1:50.0	Cambeli males and females raise their kids in burrows underground.
1:54.0	And when the first letter of pups arrive, the dads get to work right away.
1:59.0	They will be very close by during the birth.
	...

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