Comments on: Friendly Foxes https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/ Speculations on the Frontiers of Science and Culture Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:16:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Mike https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-142 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:36:00 +0000 https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-142 Thanks!

I still want one, though. :-)

]]> By: Dr. Justine Lee https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-143 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:33:00 +0000 https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-143 Mike, since you were the one who told me about this years ago, I have to give kudos to you for one of the questions out of my book:

Can I get a domesticated fox?

Russian geneticist Dmitri Bjalef bred back 10 generations of initially vicious foxes for “friendly” traits. What he noticed was that as the foxes got nicer, their coats got uglier. They began to look multi-colored, mangy, and disheveled. What this scientific breeding experiment showed is that the gene for coat color may be linked to “stress” hormones such as epinephrine. Friendly foxes appeared to have lower epinephrine levels (which resulted in lower aggression), but they just didn’t look as cool. To sum up, while Bjalef’s study did prove that you can domesticate wild animals, unless you’re looking for a really ugly one, please don’t try adopting a fox!

Material from “It’s a Dog’s Life… but It’s Your Carpet,” available at amazon.com. More information available at http://www.drjustinelee.com

Copyright © 2008 Justine Lee Veterinary Consulting, LLC.

]]> By: Mike https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-144 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:17:00 +0000 https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-144 Fascinating. Will it be or has it been published? I’d love to read about it.

(Greetings, fellow John Hawks fan.)

]]> By: Kosmo https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-145 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:27:00 +0000 https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-145 I hadn’t considered the geek connection, Mike. That’s an interesting idea.

I’ve been following Dmitri’s foxes for a while now because of some similar findings I had with mice. (Instead of breeding for tameness, and getting white-spotting, I bred for maximum expression of white-spotting, and got extreme tameness.)

http://kosmoslabbook.blogspot.com/

]]> By: Amam https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-146 Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:42:00 +0000 https://archive.opentheory.net/2006/08/friendly-foxes/#comment-146 haha, a “genetically domesticated” group of people. I hope not. Racial stuff is heated enough without that popping up. :P

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