Should bulldozers make way for hamsters?

The provocative headlines scandalized readers of Bild newspaper, quickly making the rounds on social media in Germany and abroad.

In mid-July, the tabloid was outraged that the city of Erfurt, in the eastern state of Thuringia, was planning to spend nearly €2.5 million ($2.7 million) to relocate "of all things, hamsters" — 39 of which are standing in the way of a school expansion project due to start in 2026.

Doing some quick math, the newspaper pointed out this would come to about €64,102 per hamster, according to city documents. The news came a few days after Bild accused the state government of neighboring Saxony-Anhalt of "squandering tax money" on monitoring programs for the European hamster and other animals.

The news also wasn't well-received by some Erfurt residents. "€2.5 million — where do they get that sum? They should simply box them up and resettle them somewhere else," one resident told regional public broadcaster MDR.

Why is it so expensive to move hamsters?

"In the case of Erfurt, it is of course an incredible amount of money," said Stefan Petzold, a land use and urban development consultant with German environmental association NABU.

But he pointed out that it was no simple task to find a suitable home for this animal, one of Germany's most critically endangered mammals. Hamsters live almost exclusively in low-lying fertile farmland, where they can easily burrow in the soft, plowed soil and find a reliable food source. Modern farming techniques and pesticides have destroyed European hamster habitats in recent decades, wiping out 99% of the German population.

"The animals have adapted to their environment, and can't live just anywhere," said Petzold. A suitable field will have to be found, purchased and prepared for the hamsters with pre-drilled hamster holes and planted with winter wheat, lupins and peas, to give them the best possible chance of survival. Once that's ready, the animals will be catalogued and collected, moved and then regularly monitored for years to ensure they've adapted to their new habitat.

However, despite the extra work to save the hamsters, Petzold finds the media outrage over the building project overblown.

"It's not the hamsters that are impeding this building project, it's bad planning," he said, suggesting that had project managers found out about the hamsters earlier in the process, they could have come up with an alternative location. "Usually, nature conservation costs are quite low for building projects — generally less than 5% of the total construction costs."

Does wildlife conservation regularly delay construction in Germany?

"Species protection is one of the biggest obstacles to construction in this city," Klaus-Martin Groth, a former high-ranking judge in Berlin, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper in May. "Investors today never know exactly whether they will be able to realize their plans."

Groth's firm represents one of two companies that wanted to invest €60 million in the Cleantech Business Park in the Berlin district of Marzahn — before the Berlin administration court ruled against the planned construction due to the possible presence of the European green toad.

Germany's strict conservation regulations will mean "fewer homes, fewer schools […] and fewer jobs," said Groth. "There are people who generally consider this to be desirable, but apparently ignore the fact that this may mean encroaching on previously unspoiled nature and landscapes elsewhere."

In June, the Berlin Senate adopted a draft law that would speed up planning, approval and construction processes in the city, especially when it comes to housing. Part of the new legislation would simplify laws on nature and species protection, among other things, to the extent permitted by EU and federal law. But environmentalists aren't sure whether the proposed changes would make things faster — and whether they are even legally permissible. 

Verena Riedl, a biodiversity expert with NABU, said she often hears that "species conservation is putting the brakes on construction projects," and that regulations and length planning processes in Germany "are too far-reaching and too strict."

Under Germany's nature conservation law, developers are "obliged to refrain from causing avoidable damage to nature and the landscape," and "balance out" or "replace" any unavoidable damage to biodiversity. The law is in line with the European Union 1992 Habitats Directive, which aims to conserve Europe's wild flora and fauna. That means the rules for the protection of endangered biodiversity are similar across the EU, said Riedl, adding that this was apparently not clear to some stakeholders in Germany.

But Petzold, who previously worked for the planning office of a large engineering firm, said building delays can't always be pinned on environmental protection. Often, project managers don't include conservationists until late in the process. And, he said, the problem can also be traced to a lack of cooperation and communication between the different departments involved in the project — even when they're in the same building.

"All too often, people don't look at the bigger picture," he said. Germany's digitalization delay and the lack of online tools, he added, meant it was difficult for building planners to easily reference previous material related to a project and speed up the process.

Has this happened with other projects?

This isn't the first time hamsters have been relocated for a building project. US chipmaker Intel, which is planning to build a €30-billion factory near Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, has already cleared the 400-hectare (988-acre) site of dozens of hamsters, moving them to a provisional site that will eventually allow them to integrate back into the wild.

Deutsche Bahn regularly finds new homes for animals living on the site of a future rail line or renovated train station. Over the years, Germany's national railway company has rehoused rare birds and lizards in Baden-Württemberg, toads in North Rhine-Westphalia and even entire anthills from stations in Berlin and Brandenburg. In some cases, a sniffer dog is brought in to help locate hard-to-find creatures in overgrown sites.

Perhaps the most high-profile clash between animals and builders took place in Dresden, during the construction of the long-awaited bridge of the Elbe River. The proposed site for the bridge was suspected as being a habitat of the tiny lesser horseshoe bat, critically endangered in Germany.

In 2013, bridge construction went ahead — costing the Elbe Valley its UNESCO World Heritage status — and the bats were accommodated with €200,000 in shrub plantations and a 30 kilometer per hour (18.6 miles per hour) speed limit, still partially in place today.

Why are hamsters and other animals so important?

Faced with criticism that species conservation shouldn't always be a priority — especially when it comes to saving a few dozen hamsters — Riedl pointed out that under the EU Habitats Directive, Germany is responsible for the conservation of this species threatened with extinction and that ignoring biodiversity loss was a very "short-term way of thinking."

Some 35% of the Germany's native animal species are endangered, and the biomass of insect populations has dropped by over 75% over the last few decades, even in some nature reserves. And it's not just a problem in Germany.

"We have to protect the species for as long as they're around, because once they're extinct, you can't bring them back," said Riedl. For an ecosystem to function normally, she added, the number of species can't fall below a certain level — and we don't know which species, and how many, are crucial to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Even mosquitoes have a function, even if it's 'just' food for birds."

Petzold said species protection shouldn't be seen as a luxury, but as an absolute necessity to maintain our livelihood. "Of course, schools and public infrastructure are important, but just nature conservation is just as much in the public interest — the fact that we can breathe fresh air, that we have green areas for recreation and which provide a habitat for other species," he said.

"Ultimately, we are giving a voice to nature, which cannot protect itself." 

Additional reporting by Anke Rasper.

Edited by: Sarah Steffen