How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) by Lee Alan Dugatkin

If you go one level deeper, you find yourself lost in the magical tale of how some hardscrabble but openhearted humans and the wild animals who they domesticated developed such deep attachments to each other that both seemed to forget the species divide between them. Together these two risked their careers to make scientific history. Inside this tale of path-breaking science in the midst of the often brutal -35° winters of Siberia is hidden a remarkable collaboration between an older, freethinking scientific genius and a trusting, but gutsy young woman. Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) opens up to reveal story after story, each embedded within the one that preceded it.

Lyudmila and I tell the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it all in our new book, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) (2017, University of Chicago Press).

Lyudmila Trut has been there the whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev’s death in 1985. Source: Institute of Cytology and Genetics In this ongoing experiment, now nearing its 6th decade, foxes were bred using selection criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became increasingly interested in human companionship. Along with these physical changes came genetic and behavioral changes, as well. Most accounts of the natural evolution of wolves place it over a span of about 15,000 years, but within a decade, Belyaev and Trut’s fox-breeding experiments had resulted in puppy-like foxes with piebald spots, curly tails, and, occasionally, droopy ears. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time in order to witness the process of domestication. How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog Power in the Wild podcast Mr. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken-imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs-they are foxes. Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and loving eyes that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog.

How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) by Lee Alan Dugatkin