As a kid, have you ever thought it might be awesome to have a monkey, dog or maybe even a fox as a pet? Or maybe you considered a more fearsome animal, like a lion or tiger, but realized it might be too difficult to domesticate.
In a famous 60 year long (1959-2017) experiment, Russian researchers Lyudmila Trut and Dmitry Belyayev selectively bred silver foxes to view the evolution that occurred to transform wolves into dogs. In essence, the two researchers were trying to selectively breed for tameness in the foxes.
Romeo the wolf with a labrador
Credit: Reddit
how is it possible?
Up until the study, the silver fox had never been domesticated before. To maximize the possibility that tameness was from genetic selection, the foxes were untrained, given minimal exposure to humans and were kept in cages. This tameness trait was evaluated once the pup reached the age of one month. The researcher would approach the fox in its cage while wearing a two-inch-thick glove and place a stick inside its cage.
Reactions were graded on the scale such that the highest score would be given to the calmest subjects. Criteria for some low-scoring foxes included extreme aggression or shrinking at the back of their cages. Those foxes who did not react would receive highscores and go on to breed for the next generation.
An aggressive silver fox pup
Credit: Darya Shepeleva
wait you’re happy to see me?
In the first few generations, the foxes were fairly hostile towards the researchers. Even the calmer foxes in these cohorts were notably not social towards humans. However, around the sixth generation of foxes, some fox pups seemed to seek human contact ‘not only [tail] wagging [but] also whining’. This behaviour was coined to be part of the ‘elites’.
In the sixth generation, only about 2% of the domesticated foxes exhibited this behaviour. Over the generations, the proportion of domesticated silver foxes that were deemed to be part of the ‘elites’ continuously expanded. By the 20th generation, the proportion reached 35%. In 2017, the elites made up 70% of the domesticated foxes.
Lyudmila Trut with a domesticated silver fox
Credit: Wikipedia
Can i have my own pet fox?
Yes, domesticated foxes are still obtainable from Russia. Although the experiment is no longer running, the foxes themselves are still being bred. Assuming you can pay the hefty price (approximately $8000) and it’s legal to own one in your country, it is still possible to have a pet fox.
The researchers were able to mostly domesticate the silver fox given that they had never been domesticated before. Being able to do so only by grading the calmness of the foxes as well makes the experiment even more fascinating. Despite being a very slow process, it creates the question of what other kinds of animals could we possibly domesticate purely based on their ‘tameness’?
-Darryl Ma