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(gentle music)
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How is it doing that?
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Hamsters, like Soda Pop, can stuff up to 20% of their body weight into their cheeks.
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For comparison, that's like the average person carrying around 30 extra pounds of food, or about 120 quarter pounders.
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It would be a cool party trick, but not very comfortable or, let's face it, even possible.
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That's where hamsters are different.
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But they don't stuff their faces for parties, or even because they're hungry.
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They do it to survive.
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In the wild, yes, there are actually wild hamsters, they eat all kinds of food, leaves, shoots, veggies, and fruit.
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(But) they don't consume right away, they store in those cheeks, which have pouches that extend half way down their body and expand like a balloon.
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Thank goodness we don't have anything like that, because it would probably look a little strange.
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But hamsters need to stuff their faces no matter how goofy it might look.
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In fact, they have to eat around every two hours to function normally, but foraging for food this frequently would make them easy prey.
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Instead, they collect food at night, and what they don't store, they snack on along the way.
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So during the day they can hide from predators and munch on their hoard in safety.
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And thanks to the pouches in their cheeks, that stockpile can get enormous.
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Hamster burrows have been found with nearly 200 pounds of stored food.
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These cheeks also come with special retractor muscles that help the hamster stuff itself to maximum capacity.
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If you ever watch this in action, you may notice that it reorients the food after plopping it in its mouth.
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What it's actually doing is angling the food so it easily slips to the back of the pouch as more comes in.
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Once the food is well on its way, that's when the retractor muscles come into play.
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When the pouch stretches, the muscles contract, which pushes the food toward the back, preventing it from clogging up.
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Pretty impressive stuff.
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But that's not as impressive as some of the other things hamsters can do with their cheeks.
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For starters, some species will hide their babies inside these pouches to keep them safe.
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There are reports that others can inflate their pouches with air and use it as a flotation device for swimming.
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But don't try this at home.
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Only certain wild species do this, and we don't want you to drown your poor hamster.
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We'd rather have you sit and enjoy the incredible cuteness of Soda Pop.
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Here's a fun fact.
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Hamsters can run over five miles in a 24-hour period.
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