Tame foxes

Forget hounds - foxes could become man's newest best friend, as scientists have shown they can be tamed.

After 45 years of breeding, tame foxes that wag their tails, greet humans with excited barks and look cute have been born in Siberia.

The original foxes were all black, but the new critters have white patches, big floppy ears, and curly tails.

The new foxes are also more curious, better at understanding humans, and less frightened of new things.

The scientists bred about 45,000 foxes to get to the tame stage.

When breeding the animals, they only chose them on how well they responded to people.

But the physical changes came as well - making scientists think cuteness comes along with being tame.

Aw..

UPDATE

Found another photo (from UK's Telegraph).

The captive breed foxes show a strong social intelligence

Comments

[Noofy]

Heh, they're just plotting... pick up a few of these cute foxes... put them in a farm as pets.. next thing you know, the cheekins is gone!

[Stan LS]

Or... With cropped ears and docked tails they could be fighting pitbulls! Where mah foxez be at?

[zonker]

Sheeeeesh, I want to get a dog so bad...these puppy pictures aren't helping, Stan! ;-)

[Stan LS]

That makes two of us! I'ld like one, too.. Afraid I have no time for it, though :(

[JimO]

The full story was in 'American Scientist' magazine about ten years ago, I recall. The surprising correlation between 'tameness' (actually, suppression of early onset of fear-flight hormones) and physical appearances such as piebald coats, floppy ears, curly tails -- all unknown in wild breeds -- seems to be common across many different domesticated species.

[PatriciaRomero]

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[business loans]

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