The Silver Fox Domestication Experiment: One of the Longest-Running Experiments Ever

It takes extreme dedication on one's part to keep an experiment going for at least 10 or 20 years, but Dmitri Belyaev has been doing this experiment for almost 60 years. He wanted to know how our early human ancestors were able to domesticate animals, their process for choosing which animals to befriend, and how they tamed and trained them. So what he did was to make a "dog out of a fox" essentially.

No one had ever attempted anything like it. No matter, he would try. At the time, in Stalinist Russia, the idea was considered radical and out of line with State orthodoxy. There were men who might very well have thrown the scientist in prison for what he was dreaming. But he would perform his magic in a far off, frozen land: The Siberian town of Novosibirsk, where winter temperatures can plummet to a bone-chilling -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some 60 years later, his experiment is still going. It is one of the longest running science experiments ever, having outlived even its creator. And after all this time, it is still shaping the way we think about fundamental questions in biology — and even influencing the way we understand our own evolutionary trajectory.

Of course, things didn't go smoothly as planned. Read more of the story at Undark.

(Image credit: zoofanatic/Flickr)


Start New Comment Thread...

Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!

Preview Comment
Start New Thread Post Your Reply

This reply comment will earn you 100 100 NeatoPoints !


 
Click here to access all of this post's 0 comments
Email This Post to a Friend
"The Silver Fox Domestication Experiment: One of the Longest-Running Experiments Ever"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More