
Russian Domesticated Red Fox - luxoria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Domesticated_Red_Fox
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suprjami
This is one of my favorite things. Look at what they achieved with foxes in
less than a century, then think of the tens of thousands of years we've
domesticated dogs. The whole field of "dog science" is both fascinating and
heartwarming.

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goodJobWalrus
I read about those before. As I remember, they managed to breed the aggression
out of them pretty quickly, but it's much harder to make them want the company
of people, the way dogs do.

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maxerickson
The article quotes someone speaking about the foxes:

 _Foxes in Class I are friendly toward experimenters, wagging their tails and
whining. In the sixth generation bred for tameness we had to add an even
higher-scoring category. Members of Class IE, the "domesticated elite," are
eager to establish human contact, whimpering to attract attention and sniffing
and licking experimenters like dogs. They start displaying this kind of
behavior before they are one month old._

It took them a long time to get them to mostly reproduce with those traits
(the modern ones only reach 80%), but the traits appeared in 6 generations.

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dpeck
Reproductive maturity at 10 months, so wild to at least some offspring fully
"tamed" in less than a decade of selective breeding.

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carlhu
I know this is a downer, but given that the article states that 18% of the
population are "elite" after 10 generations, and there are 2000 elite foxes
now, doesn't "strong selection pressure" imply there were around 10K-30K
individuals culled in this project for not belonging to "elite"? Is this
normal breeding practice? Speaking as a somewhat guilty owner of a beloved
papillon-breed dog.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I think your probably right. But then, 3.8 million animals were killed in
Australia in September alone for human consumption.[1]

Although I do feel a bit moralistic about dog breeds that have been selected
for specific physical appearance characteristics without much apparent
attention given to the animals health. Pugs are a good (bad) example, the
RSPCA takes a pretty dim view.[2]

Papillons have only minor health concerns although patellar luxation,
seizures, and dental problems can be issues. Additionally they can be at risk
for PRA, intervertebral disk disease, and allergies. [3]

It amazes me a bit that "dogs" are all the one species, Canis familiaris
(which translates from Latin to 'family dog', cute). I wonder what we could do
with humans if we selectively bread them for hundreds of generations.

1\.
[http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7218.0.55](http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7218.0.55)
2\. [http://www.rspca.org.au/campaigns/pedigree-dogs/the-
pug](http://www.rspca.org.au/campaigns/pedigree-dogs/the-pug) 3\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillon_(dog)#Health](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillon_\(dog\)#Health)

~~~
_yosefk
I wonder what humans could do with "us" (you? them?) if "we" selectively bread
them for hundreds of generations!

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hansjorg
Radiolab on NPR had a great episode (New Normal) where one of three bits (New
Nice) was about Dmitri Belyaev and these foxes. They also present the
interesting idea that humans might have domesticated ourselves.

[http://www.radiolab.org/story/91696-new-
nice/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/91696-new-nice/)

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danieltillett
I have always wanted one of these foxes, but alas being in Australia would
make it impossible.

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kevin_thibedeau
You might want to think twice if you've never smelled fox urine.

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nkozyra
(Dog|Cat) urine, on the other hand: a delightful bouquet.

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kevin_thibedeau
Fox eclipses dog/cat by many orders of magnitude. You can smell it from quite
a distance.

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SixSigma
Don't forget there were two experiments, they also did a lineage of super
aggressive foxes.

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kanzure
I want one of their hyper-aggressive rats:
[http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/17/004234](http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/17/004234)

~~~
nickpsecurity
If it had a rat, I'd want it to be this specific one:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPK_ij0llc8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPK_ij0llc8)

The cats' expressions are priceless. :)

~~~
Mikeb85
In Soviet Russia, mouse eats cat...

