Ladakh Tibetan Hamster

The Ladakh Tibetan hamster, Urocricetus lama, was long known as Cricetulus alticola and was moved to the genus Urocricetus in 2018. The Mammal Diversity Database suggests the names alticola, tibetanus and lama may all refer to one species, with lama the oldest available name, though more research is needed (Mammal Diversity Database).

In the Himalaya it ranges from Jammu and Kashmir to western Nepal at altitudes up to about 4,000m, and the wider species reaches about 5,200m in the mountains of Tibet and China. It lives in conifer forest, high meadows and steppe, forages for grain and seeds and also eats insects, breeds in summer, and has litters of usually five to ten young (Mammal Diversity Database and related species accounts).