VIENNA AND BRATISLAVA – part 1 of 2
The wild hamsters of Vienna have become tiny wildlife celebrities in recent years, especially since featuring in David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds, One Planet series in 2019. The European Hamster (or Black-bellied Hamster) is a different species from the domestic hamsters kept as pets – these are genuinely wild mammals ranging from France and Belgium in the west, across to southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan in the east. In 2020 they were declared Critically Endangered due to a large decrease in their population, particularly in the west of their range.
One place where they can still reliably be found is in Vienna’s Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), as seen in the TV series. In fact, Vienna has achieved something of a reputation as a city for nature enthusiasts, filled with green spaces, woodlands and wetlands, and home to some elusive animals in unexpected places. For this reason I decided to spend a few days here on the trail of the hamster, as well as some other mammals, birds, and whatever else I can find. I’ll try and do a bit of sightseeing as well. Vienna is one of Europe’s cultural big-hitters, and you would need a whole summer to see everything the city has to offer but, at the very least, I hope to see some paintings by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt.
Day One – 17th May 2023
Arriving at Stansted Airport, UK, I spot my first hamster before I’ve even set foot on the plane:
So that’s that then. Mission accomplished. Still, I’ve paid for my ticket so I guess I might as well go to Vienna anyway. Besides, I’ve promised my Swarovski binoculars a trip back to their birth-place and I don’t want to disappoint them.
After leaving the UK in sunshine, I arrive in a cold, windy and drizzly Vienna. I can’t check in to my accommodation until the afternoon, so I decide to hunt for the hamsters straight away. The Zentralfriedhof station is conveniently located on the train line between the airport and the city, but I don’t really fancy my chances in this weather. Nearby there is an area of arable land where another charismatic rodent of the region can be found – the European Souslik (or European Ground Squirrel). This animal is right on the western edge of its range here, and is more commonly found living in colonies on the dry grasslands to the east and south. I’ve read that they don’t emerge from their burrows in wet weather, so I decide to concentrate on the cemetery instead.
The cemetery is large and sprawling, but the Zentralfriedhof station is close to the north-west entrance and this takes me directly into the Jewish section, which is reputed to be the best area for hamsters and other wildlife. Despite the rain, this slightly overgrown area of the cemetery reveals some of its wildlife: Spotted Flycatchers are immediately in evidence, with at least four flitting around and fly-catching from the tops of tomb stones, a male Red-backed Shrike repeatedly drops down onto the path, as does a male Black Redstart – this species will be seen often throughout the city and elsewhere. An unseen Cuckoo is calling nearby, and a singing Golden Oriole puts in a brief appearance in one of this well-wooded graveyard’s many trees. These species would already make an amazing day’s birding back in the UK. Other birds seen are Barn Swallow, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Blackbird, Starling, Chaffinch, Hooded Crow, Mallard, Nuthatch and a Jay being mobbed by a Blackbird.
At least four Red Squirrels are seen, including one trying unsuccessfully to catch a recently fledged Blackbird. Most are in the classic rusty red, but at least one is very dark and almost black. Three Brown Hares run off down the grassy pathways between rows of graves, and the rain has brought out several large Roman Snails, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
So I’m off to a good start but, as I half expected, I don’t see any hamsters.
I check into my accommodation, which overlooks a river where the Swallows are joined by House Martins. I also see Great Tits, Feral Pigeons and a Grey Heron here, as well as more Black Redstarts – a male singing his electric crackle of a song from a rooftop and a female foraging around the station platform. I’ll see these here every day of my stay.
In the evening I avoid the rain by visiting the Albertina gallery, which is open until 9pm tonight. It has a superb collection of art from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, with plenty of Picassos, Impressionists and Post-impressionists, and a whole room of Egon Schieles. The collection on display is quite small but still manages to cover most of the art movements of the period without being completely overwhelming.
What is overwhelming, though, is the architecture in this part of the city – the Hofburg Palace complex. Between the tube station and the museum I pass half a dozen spectacular buildings, including the stables of the Spanish Riding School where a couple of white Lipizzaner horses are peering over their stable doors, and a winged horse sculpture flies overhead.
Day Two – 18th May 2023
This morning is still cold, windy and damp, but forecast to improve later when I plan to search for sousliks and hamsters. In the meantime I visit Lainzer Tiergarten – an area of wooded hills that forms the part of the Vienna Woods closest to the city. I’ve been here before, in 2014, when I had a few hours in Vienna on the way to Armenia. On that occasion I easily found Collared and Red-breasted Flycatchers – both lifers at the time. I also remember some female Wild Boars with litters of piglets feeding close to the paths, completely unconcerned by passers-by.
The weather conditions seem to be unfavourable for flycatchers (apart from Spotted Flycatchers, of which I see at least three), but I still rack up a decent bird list. As well as some of the species I saw yesterday (such as abundant Nuthatches) I tick off Chiffchaff (c5), Great Spotted Woodpecker (lots), Blackcap (lots), Treecreeper (1), Stock Dove (5+), Blue Tit (5+), Song Thrush (3), Robin (3+), Yellowhammer (3), Goldfinch (1), Goldcrest (1), Green Woodpecker (3), and Common Swift (10+), but the best birds are Black Woodpecker (1), Middle Spotted Woodpecker (3) and Wood Warbler (3). A notable sighting is a single Carrion Crow as Vienna is right on the boundary between the ranges of this species and the ubiquitous Hooded Crow. After four hours hiking in the woods I finally see a single male Collared Flycatcher, just before I’m due to leave. By this time the wind has dropped, and it is much warmer and more conducive to flycatching. I don’t see any Wild Boar on this occasion.
In the afternoon I fancy my chances with the rodents. The sousliks are diurnal and the hamsters are crepuscular, so it’s a no-brainer to search for the ground squirrels first. I head to Oberlaa tube station at the end of the line. This is right at the edge of the city and, once past some new-build apartments, I’m in agricultural land – arable fields with concomitant wildlife: Skylarks singing everywhere, a couple of Pheasants calling in the distance, three Kestrels hovering, one Buzzard circling, and a Grey Partridge peeping out from a crop. Three Roe Deer are new additions to the mammal list.
I make my way through the crop fields via a network of public footpaths, passing local dog walkers along the way. I’m heading for an area of small vineyards that I located on Google Maps because I’ve read that the sousliks like the unploughed borders and, sure enough, when I arrive at the first vineyard I spot a European Souslik standing upright at the edge of some longer grass.
Wandering around a bit, I expect to find more but I don’t. I do get some new bird sightings though – a smart male Northern Wheatear perched on the metal vine frame, two Magpies, great views of another Red-backed Shrike and a Spotted Flycatcher, which I manage to film while a couple of Nightingales sing away in the background.
Continuing through the fields, I eventually arrive at the Central Cemetery again. This time it’s early evening and the weather is warm and dry. All the same birds are in evidence, with double the number of Spotted Flycatchers, four very active male Golden Orioles singing and chasing each other around, a single Kestrel, a single Wood Warbler, and new birds in the shape of a male Pied Flycatcher and two Rooks, the latter seen feeding on some litter together with two Carrion Crows and a Hooded Crow. A single Red Squirrel is seen, and the areas of long grass hold a male Roe Deer which allows a fairly close approach.
This is already remarkable for an urban habitat but then, as I continue walking around, I flush a European Hamster that goes scuttling away across some short grass and behind a row of graves. A few metres further on I find it, or another, loafing against a tomb and partially hidden by vegetation. While I try to film it a couple of young women walk by and stand behind me, trying to see what I’m looking at. I point it out to them and they’re completely smitten (with the hamster, not with me) and they’re amazed that wild hamsters live in the city. One of them asks if it’s mine! If I was out walking my pet hamster in a graveyard I certainly wouldn’t be so irresponsible as to let it off the leash in a public space. What kind of degenerate does she think I am? You can hear us discussing the issue of ownership in this video:
It’s still early, so I’m confident I’ll see more, and sure enough I find another in the Muslim section that is showing much better, out on the short turf. These hamsters are surprisingly chunky – almost Guinea-pig sized. Its burrow is just a simple hole in the turf and I watch it for half an hour as it repeatedly emerges from the burrow, poses for photos for a bit, then runs off to fill its pouches with weed leaves from the surrounding graves, before coming back and diving head first down the hole. This it repeats a number of times until it is me who eventually walks away.
I used to keep pet hamsters as a kid, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the chubby-cheeked little varmints (but not in a weird Richard Gere way or anything). Many a school night I was kept awake by their endless nocturnal wheel-spinning, only to find them grumpy and bite-y during the day, when I woke them up and demanded to be entertained. I must have made their short lives a living hell, so it felt right and proper to meet them on their own territory in an atmosphere of mutual respect, and I feel I’ve finally achieved a degree of atonement.
Day Three – 19th May 2023
At last the sun comes out and the weather is much warmer. In the morning I visit the Belvedere museum, an extensive art collection housed in an impressive palace and spread through a handful of buildings with formal gardens in between. I start in the Lower Belvedere, which has an exhibition of Gustav Klimt paintings, paired with works by other artists that he would have seen displayed in Vienna and which probably would have inspired him. Plenty of those wonky-necked women bedecked in gold leaf that he’s most famous for, plus lots of landscapes that he painted on holiday while experimenting in the styles of other painters of the time.
The Orangery building has a display of art from the whole 300 year history of the Belvedere, and the former Stables house a medieval religious collection – various saints being manufactured in a variety of gruesome ways, that kind of thing.
The main collection is located in the Upper Belvedere, the most spectacular building in the complex, with many rooms still ornately decorated. This building contains a chronological history of Central European art, mostly from Austria and the Czech Republic, featuring lots by Egon Schiele as well as Klimt’s most famous painting The Kiss, which understandably draws the biggest crowd.
It’s actually not as bad as it looks. It’s certainly crowded, but it’s easy enough to get close to the painting for an unimpeded view. Not too close though – apparently it’s frowned upon to join in with the kissing.
By early afternoon the crowds are getting too much, so I escape the city centre for a walk along the northern side of the Danube to Donau-Auen National Park. The riverside path holds an abundance of singing Nightingales in the bushes and some more Cuckoos and Red-backed Shrikes, as well as new birds in the form of Mute Swan, Moorhen and Common Whitethroat. Trees along the riverbank show extensive beaver damage, and just this morning I happened to watch Hannah Stitfall’s YouTube video about beavers in this part of Vienna.
I’m not too impressed with the park itself. I expected more wetland but it was mostly woodland with the kinds of birds I could easily see at home, except for two Black Woodpeckers drumming incredibly loudly and a heard-only Golden Oriole. There are a few too many joggers and cyclists along the trails as well. A small wet area holds singing Sedge Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler, as well as two European Pond Terrapins and lots of Edible/Marsh/Pool Frogs (all three species are possible, and I can’t really tell them apart). A pair of fly-over Ravens and some Long-tailed Tits are added to the list.
I only manage to see a very small part of the park closest to the city. It stretches a lot further along the Danube and would certainly reward a more extensive exploration. As it is, I head back to the riverside path to walk back to the city just as dusk is falling, and I stop for drinks in a couple of the outdoor bars sitting high above the river with great views. Two Black-headed Gulls fly along the river to roost – the first gulls I see on this trip.
As it gets darker, the number of singing Nightingales increases and some Noctule Bats forage overhead. Two Black-crowned Night Herons fly over, silhouetted against the evening sky, and a Cuckoo calls from a treetop far across the river, while planes departing the airport rise over the horizon beyond, reminding me that this is still very much an urban safari.
After an impressive sunset, I continue towards the city in the dark and, just when I least expect it, I give a beaver the surprise of its life! (oh, come on… grow up).
I see my first ever European Beaver silhouetted on the bank at the same time as it sees me, and it bustles quickly through the vegetation and into the water. I expect a loud splash, or at the very least a super-sized version of a Water Vole’s ‘Plop!’, but very little sound is made. There is no tail slap followed by a quick disappearance. The beaver floats in the water a few feet from the bank and waits for me to make the next move.
I’m unprepared, but I still have time to fish around in my bag for a torch and to take my camera out of my jacket pocket. The camera is useless in this light, but the torch shows the animal’s head shape and eye shine beautifully.
The beaver doesn’t panic, but swims slowly down the river towards the city and I follow slowly behind along the footpath, occasionally passing it and then letting it catch up like I’m walking a dog. There are still a few people out on the path, and the bank is lined with night fishermen, so the beavers here are obviously used to people. At one point I see it climb onto the bank and then I listen for a while as it chomps on vegetation before getting back in the water and continuing. There’s enough light from the bridges to clearly see its head in the water and the long wake it leaves behind. Eventually I lose it under the road bridges just before I reach the railway station, and I have to head off to catch the train.
On the way back to the city I hope to see a rat, or some other rodent. After Red Squirrel, Souslik, Hamster, and now Beaver, I was on for a Viennese rodent Big Five. Unfortunately my time is up and, just as my one year of schoolboy German is starting to come back to me, it’s time to leave. In part two I’m heading to Slovakia, before returning to Vienna again.
Acknowledgements
I used this website for tips on how and where to find the hamsters:
It also contains links to further reading about European Hamster biology and conservation.
I found the European Souslik site thanks to this link:
The BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet European Hamster clip is here:
Hannah Stitfall’s Vienna wildlife videos are here:
European Hamsters:
European Beavers:
Accommodation
I stayed at Nest Natur Hostel. It was slightly out of the centre but very close to a train station. They have dorms, but I got a private room with shared bathroom and a balcony overlooking a river. It was a friendly place with very basic but clean rooms. The bed was comfortable, the showers were hot and powerful, it was very quiet at night, wifi was good, and the bar next door gave free beer to hostel guests (I’m not even kidding). The cost for three nights was £95 (€108).
Transport
The locations I visited were quite far apart and I spent a lot of time bouncing around the city on Vienna’s excellent public transport system. I bought a 72 hour pass for €17 and it was well worth it. Put it in your wallet and you can jump from train to tram to bus as much as you like without worrying about buying or validating a ticket each time. Also available for 24 (€8) and 48 (€?) hours.
Food
I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t sit down to a single meal in Vienna. I was constantly on the move during the day and too tired for a proper dinner at night. I just grabbed food on the go, from railway stations and street kiosks – schnitzel sandwiches, cheese börek, apple pastries, noodles, hot dogs and burgers. It was all delicious, but probably not a great idea long term.
Vole Explosion 
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