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Rediscovered after half a century: a new record of the grey dwarf hamster, Cricetulus migratorius (Mammalia: Cricetidae), in Romania

* Correspondence: attila.sandor@usamvcluj.ro The grey dwarf hamster (Cricetulus migratorius) is the smallest hamster species occurring in Europe and belongs to steppe-dwelling rodents, typical of the eastern part of the continent (Niethammer, 1982). Among all hamsters, it has the largest geographical range, occurring in the wide grassland belt from the Carpathians to the east through Russia and central Asia to Mongolia and western China, while in the south it reaches the Balkans (Bulgaria, Greece), the Middle East (the Anatolian part of Turkey, Jordan, Israel), Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India (Milchev, 2009; Nedyalkov, 2015; Kryštufek et al., 2016). The grey dwarf hamster is one of the most common rodents in Central Asia (Bykova et al., 2015), while it has a fragmented distribution with low population densities in most parts of its range in Europe (Niethammer, 1982; Nedyalkov, 2015). It is widely accepted that these are the remaining populations of a much wider Pleistocene distribution when the species (along with other smallsized hamsters, see Hír, 1993) reached much more to the west, including Central Europe (Germany, Hungary, Switzerland) (Kowalski, 2001). In Romania, the grey dwarf hamster is a rare species with altogether 9 locality records known from the central and south-eastern parts of Romanian Moldova (eastern Romania). However, no individuals were recorded in nearly 50 years and the species is proposed as Critically Endangered (due to its rarity) in the Red Data Book of Romania (Botnariuc and Tatole, 2005). Here I report a new record of C. migratorius from the north-eastern part of Romania, a previously unknown area. Remains of 2 adult individuals of C. migratorius were found in pellets of long-eared owls (Asio otus), which were collected from downtown Botoșani, a city in northeastern Romania (47.744909°N, 26.663882°E, Figure 1). The pellets were collected on 10 March 2007 and were produced by a flock of wintering owls, remaining from the early winter. Cranial (Figure 2) and long bones (femur, humerus) of the 2 individuals were located in 2 different pellets, each also containing one common/sibling vole (Microtus arvalis/M. levis). Cricetulus migratorius was a rare prey for the owls, accounting for 0.07% of 2836 vertebrate prey individuals. Other mammal species found in the pellets were (in order of their frequency) Microtus arvalis/M. levis, M. agrestis, M. subterraneus, Apodemus agrarius, A. sylvaticus/flavicollis, Mus musculus/spicilegus, Micromys minutus, Crocidura leucodon, A. uralensis, Rattus norvegicus, Sorex minutus, Arvicola amphibius, C. suaveolens, and Muscardinus avellanarius. Based on the measurements of M2 and M3 (measurements not shown) the 2 C. migratorius individuals were similar to those collected by Hamar (1965), Simionescu and Straton (1966), and Nedyalkov (2016). Cricetulus migratorius was a common species in Romania from the Middle Pleistocene (in Dobrogea, Radulesco et al., 1998) to the Younger Dryas in the early Holocene (Hamar, 1963; Terzea, 1971), and was present Abstract: The grey dwarf hamster, Cricetulus migratorius, is the smallest hamster species in Europe, with a highly fragmented distribution in most countries in the south-eastern part of the continent. It is rarely observed, with most records provided by raptor diet studies. Here we report a new observation from extreme north-eastern Romania, based on individuals identified in the diet of owls. The records considerably extend the known geographical range to the north in Romania and these are the first observations from an urban area in the country.