Fox domestication

Armas22

I read recently about an experiment carried out in Russia, where silver foxes were bred in captivity and where agression was artificially selected against. After a number of generations, domesticated foxes were produced which varied enormously from their forebears in appearance and temperment. This work seems to back up the theories on how dogs evolved from wolves through artificial selection by Mankind.

Is there some fundamental biological reason as to why dogs and cats become domesticated while foxes did not?

2Scoops

Foxes could be domesticated, but if a fox population was domesticated you would call them dogs. Also, there are plenty of dog and cat breeds which are wild.

I'm speculating, but I imagine dogs and cats were selected by humans for domestication because they had useful skills to early man (herding, pest control).

Capt'n Midnight

I'd argue that cats aren't fully domesticated. Cats unlike packs of feral dogs have no problems reproducing in the wild.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that makes rodents more docile, it also slows down humans reaction times. You could consider it a tool cats use. The only reason they didn't invent the can opener is that they domesticated one instead.


I've read somewhere (New Scientist ?) that in general domesticated animals are smaller and lighter in colour than wild relatives.

Armas22

The foxes bred in the Siberian experiment did indeed look and act like dogs.

As I understand it, all domesticated dogs are descended from a single wild species, the grey wolf. It amazes me that none of the other canines were domesticated. There must have been something special about grey wolves and how they interacted with early humans.

I can understand cat domestication re pet control, but wouldn't foxes or ferrets have filled that role too?

I wonder if all domestic cats are descended from a single ancestor species?

DrIndy

They did an experiment on minx as well - where they selectively bred domesticated (or docile) characteristics into them rather than the quality of the fur. These minx(es) would return to the farm when they escaped more often than not.

There is a difference between a tame animal and a domesticated one. A tame wolf will still have wild instincts which make them unpredictable and cause them to randomly attack their human "masters" whenever they see a chance to be leader of the pack - whereas dogs are more than happy getting food and lying on a bed in the corner at the bottom of the pack.

Cats can and do exhibit domesticated roles - we had a half persian cat (originally a stray) and her 3 kittens - then cats who would gang up on an intruder as a pack which is the opposite of normal where they fight as individuals and they would also follow us beyond their "territory" over 1km up into hill country when we went for a walk.

But cats tend to be bred for looks rather than simply domesticated elements - do we want nice looking cats or mangy, friendly and loyal beasts?

darjeeling

Armas22 wrote: »

As I understand it, all domesticated dogs are descended from a single wild species, the grey wolf.

Yes, and a comprehensive paper in Nature just last month focused in even more closely. It found that dogs are mostly descended from Middle Eastern grey wolves, with some local interbreeding later between what were - by then - dogs, and the neighbourhood wolves. A few ancient, eastern breeds apparently inherited a large proportion of their genes from Chinese wolves this way. So dogs, along with so many other domesticates, came out of the Middle East. Science Daily's report is here.

Armas22 wrote: »

I can understand cat domestication re pet control, but wouldn't foxes or ferrets have filled that role too?

Ferrets did - they're domesticated polecats, beloved of stereotypical Yorkshiremen, who keep them down their trousers. They may (ferrets, not Yorkshiremen) have been with us since 2,500 years ago. Apologies for posting Wikipedia's article in place of anything more authoritative.