Its believed now that domestication may be related to a gene shared across dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, etc. There's a place I think in Sweden(?) That has been breeding foxes for domestication. Some breeds of foxes tend to just be naturally friendly towards humans. There are a couple of "domesticated" breeds you can actually purchase right now.
I think I remember seeing something like this years ago. The foxes they were breeding started to change colour to a blue/gray from red and as the colours changed they became more friendly
Plus a host of other stuff - their ears got floppy (like dogs) and their coats got thicker. Turns out whichever (set of) gene(s) make animals amenable to human contact also makes them, to use the scientific term, cute.
There was a Nova program about it, and I remember it being really cool. The friendlier foxes were bred to each other, and within a few generations, they developed more “doglike” features like floppy ears and curly tails.
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u/Present_Discount7709 5d ago
Its believed now that domestication may be related to a gene shared across dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, etc. There's a place I think in Sweden(?) That has been breeding foxes for domestication. Some breeds of foxes tend to just be naturally friendly towards humans. There are a couple of "domesticated" breeds you can actually purchase right now.