Domesticated silver foxes are the new fad for household pets in Russia. The institute of Cytology and Genetics wanted to compress thousands of years of genetic domestication into just a few short years. The foxes began to show characteristics of the domesticated phenotype such as bonding with humans, showing anticipation with human contact, and wagging tails and having floppy ears. “Beginning in 1959, researchers in Siberia selectively bred foxes to encourage a single behavior: friendliness toward humans. Over generations, other traits that distinguish dogs from wild canids emerged, including piebald coats and wagging tails” (Ratliff, 2011). The domestication experiment started with 135 wild foxes. Foxes apparently share the same gene that domesticated animals have; the gene just had to be exaggerated.
Beyyaev and other biologists determined that domestication cannot be defined, it is simply found in genes. The biologists also contribute the success of domestication to itself. The history of the domestication of the wolf into the dog was partly due to the animal’s cooperation and ability to adapt.
The breeding pattern is specially selected by biologists who enhance the domesticated traits by breeding the foxes that are showing the most advancement. This specialized breeding contributes to the fast domestication process. So, foxes do indeed make great pets and the domestication process is progressively becoming more scientifically enriched.
Ratliff, E. Taming the wild. National Geographic. May 2011, Vol 219 Issue3, page 35-59.
Picture: nationalgeographic.com
While this article proposed a hypothesis for the molecular basis of domestication, I don’t necessarily agree with the statement that a single gene is what determines the outcome of if an animal is to be domesticated or not. I think it is neat that these researchers are finding genetic differences among domesticated and non-domesticated animals, genes they are pinpointing that have a “propensity for tameness”, but I believe there is so much more involved with the behavior, phenotype, environmental situations, and life histories of animals to claim that domestication can simply be found in genes. For example, this study clearly demonstrated that the more and more time these fox spent with humans, the more they adapted to their presence and interactions, therefore the more they were partial to their existence and changed their behavior towards them. From this it can be concluded that through this somewhat forced interaction, not only were the foxes environments changed, but their behavior was changed as well to act in a more domesticated, calm, and non-aggressive manor. Here is where I can see how the researchers hypothesized that there was a link between genetics and behavior for the animals, but how to pinpoint and segregate those genes from one study among one species not only is difficult to do, but difficult to claim as causal evidence for domestication. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see where their research takes them in unlocking the mysteries of domestication.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard about domesticated foxes! But type in “domestic foxes for sale” into Google and there are nearly half a million hits – many of them links to purchasing the animals as pets.
ReplyDeleteMy main concern is that certain species become popular pets momentarily – right now foxes are really in. History has shown many versions of popular domesticated animals: dogs, cats, horses, llamas, mice, insects, frogs, and even skunks. The problem with exotic pets comes when they lose popularity. We see this with wild animals sold on the black market. For example: to some people, a baby tiger seems like a really good idea to have as a pet – they’re cute, exotic, and rare. But once that tiger grows up, they are burdensome; they eat a lot of food, they have big claws and teeth, they’re no longer so ‘cute’ – in fact, they’re dangerous. So they are dropped off in the wild. Having grown up domestically, they lack the skills necessary for them to survive in the wild, and without rescue, will almost certainly die.
“Trendy pets”, like domesticated foxes, also run this risk. While they are popular as pets, they become accustomed to domestic life. Once they lose popularity, they are abandoned. This is not only risky to their species, but may also have consequences on the surrounding environment and ecosystem.
References:
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/exoticpetsissues/a/wildanimals.htm
I really love the idea of having a pet fox, they are very intelligent creatures, and do have a pack animal mentality. Without the concern for domestication of a wild animal being a bit impractical and slightly unreasonable, I could see why the fox would be a desirable house-pet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do have some concerns with domesticating a wild animal. It is not fair to the animal to take them out of the wild, and domesticate them. It could be very detrimental to a local wild population of fox if one of the domesticated fox got loose and began breeding with them. The changes genetically could drastically alter the "attitude" of that specific fox population.
Another concern I would have would be for the owner of the fox. Even though these animals are considered to be domesticated, there is still a wild streak in them, and could potentially be a safety hazard to the owner or other individuals living in the home.
Also, there could be underlying diseases that these animals carry that could be passed on to humans or other animals in a household (most likely dogs) that could cause death becasue it is untreatable.
I also have a concern with breeding the fox with a house dog or another breed of dog, if this cross bred animal ran away and somehow wound up breeding with a local wild fox population, this could also drastically and possibly detrimentally effect the population genetics of that pack of fox.
Overall, I think that is is an adorable idea to have a pet fox, scientifically and realistically speaking, I can not condone the decision. It simply comes down to the personal idea: just because an animal could be domesticated, doesn't mean that humans have the right to do so, possibly causing a drastic genetic drift if unexpected outcomes did occur.