Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with
wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any
lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs--they are foxes.
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. 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.
This is the extraordinary, untold story of this remarkable undertaking.
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 floppy ears, piebald
spots, and curly tails. Along with these physical changes came genetic
and behavioral changes, as well. The foxes were bred using selection
criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became
increasingly interested in human companionship. Trut has been there the
whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev's
death in 1985, and with Lee Dugatkin, biologist and science writer, she
tells the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it
all. In How to Tame a Fox, Dugatkin and Trut take us inside this
path-breaking experiment in the midst of the brutal winters of Siberia
to reveal how scientific history is made and continues to be made today.
To date, fifty-six generations of foxes have been domesticated, and we
continue to learn significant lessons from them about the genetic and
behavioral evolution of domesticated animals. How to Tame a Fox offers
an incredible tale of scientists at work, while also celebrating the
deep attachments that have brought humans and animals together
throughout time.
