In 1959, the Soviet zoologist Dmitry Belyaev began selectively breeding silver foxes. Those least afraid of people were chosen to reproduce. His goal was to simulate the process that turned fierce … ...

For the last 60 years, scientists in Siberia have bred silver foxes to be increasingly tame, with the goal of revealing the evolutionary and genetic underpinnings of domestication. This research ...

A domesticated silver fox pup. (Irena Muchamedshina) By Lee Alan Dugatkin. We humans have been domesticating animals for at least 10,000 years, and we’ve done so for a plethora of reasons.

In 1959, the Soviet zoologist Dmitry Belyaev began selectively breeding silver foxes. Those least afraid of people were chosen to reproduce. His goal was to simulate the process that turned fierce ...

Joker, a silver fox at Wolf Park in Indiana. A decades-long experiment on taming silver foxes informed a key theory about animal domestication that is now being called into question.