Experts try to show foxes into our latest pets – by altering their brains
Experts have discovered changes in the brains of foxes after selectively breeding kits to be friendlier in a generations long domestication project
Boffins have been able to change the brains of a group of foxes through a selective breeding program (Stock)
A team of experts are trying to domesticate foxes to see if they could become man’s new best friend – by changing their brain chemistry.
Some experts believe that foxes are undergoing a “self-domestication” process in urban cities such as London. And a group of fox fanatics who have been selectively breeding friendlier foxes in a generations-long project have seen changes in the make-up of the animals’ brains.
In a new study, experts looking at the brains of foxes involved in a programme in Siberia, Russia, found changes in their brains had occurred after generations of selective breeding.
The study was published in the journal Current Biology. Researchers found changes in the area of the brain called the ventromedial hypothalamus, known to drive aggression and decisions related to play.
The study was published in the journal Current Biology (Stock)
Carl Soulsbury, a professor of animal ecology at the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: “It shows that fox behaviour, and the brain behind it, can be shaped by selection. But it took a controlled breeding programme to do it.
“That’s what domestication is: genetic change over many generations, driven by people choosing which animals breed.”
Prof Soulsbury said some experts believe foxes in urban settings are going through a “self-domestication” process – but not in the sense that the animals are likely to become pets.
“Some scientists use the term ‘self-domestication’ for what happens in cities. Rather than a one-way process dictated purely by humans, it is an interactive feedback loop,” he said.
“Wildlife actively exploits urban niches, the individuals that cope best with people do well, and over time that can shift the population. There is some physical evidence too.
Some experts believe foxes in urban areas are going through process of ‘self-domestication’
“A study of London foxes found that urban foxes have shorter, wider snouts and smaller braincases than rural foxes, changes that resemble those seen in domesticated animals.”
Prof Soulsbury added these findings echoed his own research.
He said: “That fits our own finding that foxes in longer-established urban areas explore and problem-solve more. But we don’t yet know how much of this is inherited rather than a response to the urban diet and lifestyle.”
Prof Soulsbury believes mankind may one day domesticate the orange canid through a human project. But he is doubtful the process will happen in the wild.
“A small group could be, through a controlled breeding programme like the one in the study,” he added.
“But that would be a human project, not something wild urban foxes are doing on their own.
“People have in the past kept tame foxes for thousands of years. But none of these led to a domestic fox, unlike the wolves that became dogs. Tame foxes can behave a lot like dogs (like many other canids), but are still ultimately a tame wild animal.”
