[null and void]

*sigh* No pictures...

[TBall]

I did not read any of your post, but my dog goes crazy when he hears a door bell on TV and starts barking and acting like someone is at our door. The funny thing is that my house does not and has not during the dog's lifetime had a working doorbell. Do you know why this is?

[Capriole]

I had a pet fox when I was a kid. They are the most delightful animals in the world and it would be wonderful to have a naturally affectionate, domestic-bred one. If there were any way I could get my hands on a pet fox again or could afford to do so I'd love it.

How horribly sad to think of these dear, enchanting animals, who love and trust people, being sold for fur-farming! I have nothing against fur-farming, meat-eating, or hunting (I wear fox fur, eat meat, and ride to hounds myself) but this is like selling the family cat or dog for its fur.

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #1

This is a great article which can provide insight even into human evolution. I wonder if humans also evolved for the tamability, that is, the enhanced ability of social interaction.

[Sabertooth]

I saw something about this recently on a program that was either on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel. The playfulness of these foxes as they interacted with humans and dogs was very appealing. Often as they ran, their tales undulated behind them like that of squirrels.

[LibKill]

I read about this one in Smithsonian magazine more than ten years ago.

If memory serves, 30 or so years (at that time) of intensive breeding to produce more tractable sable foxes had come up with small doglike creatures, with spotted coats that were commercially worthless.

I'm not sure what, if anything, this proves but it was interesting reading.

[blam]

Foxes are closer kin to cats that they are to dogs. Btw, interesting article thanks.

[Edward Watson]

Great article. I never knew it was possible to create such a breed. I do hope the researchers get the funding they need to continue their work and begin selling these pups as pets. I wonder how much each pup can be purchased and what special diets, shots and care they will need?

[stanz]

This demonstrates part of the evolutionary process namely; The mechanics of selection and how a single pressure can have a multiple (polygenetic) effect. This is perhaps lot more important than some may realise. Not speciation btw but perhaps part of the that pocess.

Multiply a bit of selective pressure by unyielding environmental flux and random genetic mutations over time and it is no wonder that a small shrew-like, arboreal creature could give rise to a large terrestrial bipedal form with a propensity for language and abstract thought.

[razorbak]

Something to read as you continue to whistle past the graveyard:

The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. =@(Iain, 1982, 57)

"I defend the Good God against the idea of a continuous game of dice." (Speziali, 1972, 361)

[EINSTEIN]

Psa.14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

[titanmike]

That sort of experiment might be easier to do in Russia than here. Several kinds of animals including foxes and bears have had long ages to get used to dealing with peasants and farmers there.

[Varda]

bump for later

[js1138]

placeholder bump

[Darksheare]

There's an animal rescue place near me that has a fox, not sure what type but it is a fox, that wags it's tail and whimpers at people. If you get your hand close to it, it licks your hand and 'whuthers' like a puppy.
Odd little fella. He was supposedly an orphaned kit that was found and raised in someone's home.

Just an odd sidenote.

[Just another Joe]

Has anyone thought of how a government may use this on it's citizens?
Welfare sets up the lazy folks. Welfare moms have how many babies. Through the process you end up with citizens that have been bred to be lazy.
If citizens are lazy they don't have the energy to root out the corrupt politicians.

[gnarledmaw]

Wery good article. This stood out...

"the future of our domestication experiment is in doubt, jeopardized by the continuing crisis of the Russian economy."

She has a doctors degree but apparently isnt familiar with economics at all.

Lyudmila,
There are a bunch of people out there known as Americans. They will buy ANYTHING, even crap from China. You have the worlds only supply of domesticated foxs. Americans + domestic foxes = piles of rubles.

[Old Professer]

Because behavior is rooted in biology, selecting for tameness and against aggression means selecting for physiological changes in the systems that govem the body's hormones and neurochemicals.

Behavior is rooted in biology? Don't tell psychologists this.