Syrian Golden Hamster Capture in 1971

Syrian Golden Hamsters were captured in 1940 and all hamsters in pet stores and laboratories were descended from siblings from that capture -- until 1971. The second capture of live Syrian Golden Hamsters was accomplished in 1971 by Michael Ross Murphy, a Ph.D. candidate at M.I.T. and his wife Janet Fearn Murphy. We brouoght back to the United States twelve unrelated wild Syrian Golden Hamsters. This is a big deal to lab scientists and hamster lovers alike. I, Janet Murphy, wrote a Shutterfly book about this experience with lots of beautiful photographs. But the information about this event needs to be publicly available. The Murphy strain of hamsters was thereafter maintained at NIMH and used for important scientific research in other laboratories. with interesting results..