Domesticated foxes

[sholio]

I'd read about this before, but never thought to look them up on Youtube. Basically, a Russian researcher deliberately bred silver foxes for tameness (so they would be easier to harvest for fur). What he discovered, unexpectedly, is that as the foxes grew more tame, they also started to exhibit a whole bunch of dog characteristics along with the tameness -- floppy ears, spotted coats, barking, wagging, and generally acting like dogs.

And the video of them ... my first reaction was OH GOD FREAKY, because they have fox bodies and fox tails, but they move just like dogs, with the wagging and bouncing. And my second reaction was SO CUTE! WANT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enrLSfxTqZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzTcmE-pMLU

(ETA: Apparently they do sell them as pets. Now I really want one!)

Comments

[leenys.livejournal.com]

For all I know, this one could have been a mix. She insisted it was full-blooded, and I don't know enough to say it was or wasn't. It sure looked full-blooded. But she wasn't quite stable in her head, so those two were a scary combination indeed!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I guess there's the big problem with wolves and wolf-hybrids (as well as pit bulls, pet tigers and submachineguns) ... people who are fascinated enough with them to actually spend their money on them are very often kind of unstable in various ways ...