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The status of the Common hamster in Europe has changed during the past century from an agricultural pest to an endangered species. To prevent extinction in the Netherlands, a breeding program was set up, from which hamsters were released in the wild in several hamster reserves in the province of Limburg. Knowledge on the reproductive ecology of the Common hamster is essential to determine the progress of the reintroduced populations in Limburg. Therefore, this study concentrated on the question how many litters were produced annually by captive-bred, wild (offspring ofcaptivebred) and wild-moved (wild hamsters moved by humans from one reserve to another) hamsters in the Netherlands. Based on the total time the hamsters were alive during the reproductive season (May-September), it was determined that wild hamsters could have 2.5 litters on average, wild-moved 1.8 and captive-bred 1.6. When the movements of hamsters during the breeding season, were also taken into account, wild hamsters were able to raise 1.9 litters, which should be enough to get a growing population. Wild-moved hamsters could have 1.4 litters and captive-bred only 0.9. However, since juveniles born from captive-bred hamsters are considered wild, a population of captive-bred individuals will decline at first, but will start growing after l-2 year. When hamsters are living outside hamster reserves, they are only capable of raising l litter, because the crops are harvested around July. One litter a year is not enough to compensate for the high mortality that hamsters experience on conventional managed fields and it is thus not possible to maintain a stable …