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This is NOT a Great Hamster of Alsace Flickr

France has a plan to save the endangered Great Hamster of Alsace

The hamster has been protected legally since 1993 but their numbers have dropped to as low as 161 in 2007.

AUTHORITIES IN THE French region of Alsace have launched an action plan to save a hamster facing extinction, more than two years after Europe’s top court rapped Paris for neglecting the little rodent.

The five-year project will see farmers in the eastern region implement measures to try to encourage the reproduction of the Great Hamster of Alsace, which can grow to 25 centimetres (10 inches) long, has a brown and white face, a black belly, white paws and little round ears.

It aims to raise the population of the creature to around 1,500 from 500 to 1,000 currently.

As part of the €3 million project announced on Monday by Alsace’s regional council, farmers have pledged to grow plants or grains that the rodent likes such as wheat or alfalfa on parts of their fields.

An action plan for the hamster had been put in place in 2007, but the European Court of Justice ruled in 2011 that France was still not doing enough to protect the furball, which hibernates for six months and spends the vast majority of its life alone.

The hamster has been protected legally since 1993 but its numbers fell from 1,167 in 2001 to as few as 161 in 2007, although they have since gone up slightly.

The preferred grazing of the creature – forage crops such as alfalfa – have largely been replaced by the more profitable maize, which it does not like.

Farmers will therefore try planting a mix of maize and alfalfa, or leaving strips of plants in between each line of maize.

“The aim is to find innovative… practices to preserve the animal without harming farmers’ activities,” the regional council said in a statement.

Rampant urbanisation has also contributed to eroding the rodent’s population, and the hamster currently lives in just 14 zones in Alsace criss-crossed by busy thoroughfares.

© -AFP 2014

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 3:03 PM

    Thats good isn’t it.. put it on charge.. have sex, you only have to wait another 13 minutes untill its charged.

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:06 PM

    Just make sure you know which port to plug your USB into!

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 3:28 PM

    BOOM just had a brainwave. battery tax!

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    Mute Andrew Halpin
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 3:41 PM

    It’s already taxed as is the power to charge them. Tax whingers with old phones

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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:01 PM

    Do you not think we’re charged enough?

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    Mute David Beattie
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:15 PM

    I gave all my Dead Batteries away. Free of CHARGE.

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    Mute Willie Murphy
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 3:09 PM

    And now…. By magic… ALL brands will be able to be charged in 15 minutes (or less). Phones are now almost obsolete before you even buy them !!

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    Mute Peter
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 3:14 PM

    15 minutes to fully charge a battery that probably only lasts a few hours anyway.

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:30 PM

    Yeah 2500 mah is fairly crap

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:49 PM

    You people wouldn’t appreciate flying cars if we had them.

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 5:52 PM

    They would only have a few hours flight time

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 6:02 PM

    Think of the birds…

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 8:00 PM

    It’s ok for a phone, but it’s not just about the size is how you use it.

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 4:32 PM

    Sort out your escalators first China, then get back to us.

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    Feb 24th 2016, 2:36 AM

    I’m sceptical, very sceptical.

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    Mute Liam Byrne
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    Feb 23rd 2016, 8:41 PM

    15 minutes is about as long as my battery lasts.

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    Feb 23rd 2016, 5:14 PM

    If only Google had some kind of phone that could do this for almost a year, oh yeah they do, the Nexus 5x

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