In a wheat field in France, a cat meets a black-bellied hamster (仓鼠). Too far from her burrow (洞穴) to run for shelter, the wild hamster rises on her back legs to face her enemy. The cat backs away. “Theyˈre afraid of nothing,” says Alexandre Lehmann, a biologist who has worked with these wild hamsters for the past 12 years.“They fight against cats and dogs and even farmers. They try to fight against tractors.”Itˈs a good thing that the black-bellied hamster wonˈt go down without a fight. Because in France, where only 500 to 1,000 remain in the wild, they are in a fight for their lives.

    At the Stork and Otter Reintroduction Centre in Alsace, Lehmann and his colleagues breed captive hamsters and set the young hamsters free into the wild. But raising black-bellied hamsters isnˈt exactly easy. Remember, they have attitude. Forget humans — they donˈt even like each other.“You have to make sure the male and female donˈt kill each other,”Lehmann says.

    Black-bellied hamsters might think of themselves as tough guys. But to a fox or an eagle, theyˈre just a four-legged snack. To survive, hamsters need to be set into a field with lots of leafy hiding places. Thatˈs a problem in Alsace, where most farmers plant corn. The corn hasnˈt sprouted (发芽) in early spring, when hamsters come out of their burrows from winter hibernation (冬眠). In the bare fields the hamsters are easy targets for their enemies.

    Some older farmers donˈt want hamsters in their fields because of their reputation as crop-chewing pests. But most are willing to help, especially since the French government will pay farmers to grow early-sprouting crops such as alfalfa and winter wheat and allow hamsters to be set free on their lands. Itˈs a way to protect not just the hamsters, but also other small animals in leafy fields.