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Right, the process never really claimed to "tame" foxes. It is an experiment in selective breeding. Which as a goal aims to end up with domesticated foxes. Sel
by Zyst 10y ago
Right, the process never really claimed to "tame" foxes. It is an experiment in selective breeding. Which as a goal aims to end up with domesticated foxes.
Selective breeding does mean that you take undesirables out of the gene pool, in this case, turning them into fur to be sold which further funds the experiment.
Maybe in 10 or 20 years when this is further along I would be interested in seeing how a Fox would do as a pet.
- pvg 10y agoThe breeding has been going on for 50-odd years.
- aab0 10y agoThey're already sold as pets. Reportedly they're pretty good pets if you don't mind the price tag.
- Zyst 10y agoI did see that part. However it's still being an 'early adopter'. 10 or 20 years later the risk you take has been dampened because people have had Fox pets for complete life-cycles which means more of the caveats of ownership are known. And the breeding location has had even more time to breed out undesirable behavior. A win-win of sorts as a consumer. Of course with the caveat being that the place could go out of business because of a lack of buyers. You did mention that they are Reportedly pretty good pets, do you have a source on that? I would enjoy reading more on the subject.
- mahyarm 10y agoYoutube videos are a source. One issue I have with them is how high pitched and loud they can be, despite being nice otherwise.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y agoThey make terrible pets because foxes mark their territory with a scent that is extremely pungent. You basically have to have enough land to keep them penned away from the home.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- DasIch 10y agoI'd assume that this would be considered in the selective breeding process.
- sperglord 10y agoPerhaps, but it wasn't mentioned in the article. I'd consider those kinds of secondary things that breeders would work for once the primary goal has been accomplished.
- DasIch 10y agoThis project has been going on for decades. If smell is a serious issue with foxes, someone certainly brought that up and increasing the scope in this way is rather obvious. In fact it's not really increasing the scope much at all because if you're going for pets, clearly the smell issue needs to be solved. The primary goal of showing that this can be done at all, apparently has also been accomplished apparently decades ago. I can't imagine that they're not already in the refinement stage.