Golden hamster stock of hamsters was exported from Syria to the United States in 1971, but apparently none of today's North American pets is descended from these (at least in the female line), because recent mitochondrial DNA studies have established that all domestic golden hamsters are descended from one female – probably the one captured in 1930 in Syria. Since the species was named, the genus "Cricetus" has been subdivided and this species (together with several others) was separated into the genus "Mesocricetus", leading to the currently accepted scientific name for the golden hamster of "Mesocricetus auratus". Following Professor Aharoni's collection in
Domestication of the Syrian hamster male hamster then killed one of the females. Aharoni doubted that the remaining hamsters would breed. Ben-Menachen tried a new breeding technique, described as follows: Aharoni wrote this conclusion: Within one year, these three hamster siblings were the origin of a colony of 150 hamsters. Adler was the first recipient of hamsters from this colony. Adler and another scientist published the first research using Syrian hamsters in 1931. Adler was known for his generosity and modesty and often did not make a record of his work, so some of what happened next is uncertain. Aharoni made no mention of further