It is one of the symbols of Alsace, but not the best known. In the shadow of the stork, which has been successfully reintroduced in recent decades, the European hamster is still considered in danger of extinction. Even if their number of burrows doubled between 2021 and 2022 according to the count carried out by the French Office for Biodiversity.
This problem, Maria Luchankina knew nothing about it when she arrived in Strasbourg in 2010. In her Siberia, the student had never seen these small rodents. “But I was already very interested in nature because my grandparents lived in the countryside. And this European hamster, its other name, comes as far as Kazakhstan, she points out. I got to know him little by little. »
From eight years old
Better, to draw it as part of his training. “It was for fun at first but I was told it was good then…”, laughs the 30-year-old, whose illustration was used at the international symposium on the subject, in 2018 in Strasbourg. A passion was born and the Russian then had the idea of a board game about the great hamster of Alsace. For what ? “Because there are coloring and mini-games for children but for adults, it quickly becomes serious,” she replies. I wanted to offer something more playful through art, while remaining informative. »
Because it was she who designed the board but also sculpted and cast the resin figurines. All while concocting a scenario, helped by his brother, able to amuse the participants. “We can play from eight years old and it is planned for two to six players. Four is fine. There are two teams: one of hamsters who want to enter their burrow, and one of predators with an owl and a fox, continues the designer, again evoking the different areas of the set. Fields after harvest, farm, cornfields, roads etc. »
“It allows you to better understand what the Alsatian hamster is going through and how the behavior of men affects their lives”, insists Maria Luchankina, who thus hopes “to interest in the cause”. For this, his game entitled The hamster returns and translated in particular into Alsatian, must now be published. To this end, it has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the platform Kickstarter. To date, approximately 2,700 euros have been collected. A sum still quite far from the objective set. “It would take 6,000 euros otherwise it will not see the light of day”, launches the artist, who does not ” [se] not pay” in the case, “it’s just to finance the equipment”. And inform in a different way about these “super cute rodents”.