4 ms·
I’m curious if this is nurtured behavior or behavior devolped through an evolutionary process, or both. This reminds me of the fox domestication experiment in S
by andygcook 8y ago
I’m curious if this is nurtured behavior or behavior devolped through an evolutionary process, or both. This reminds me of the fox domestication experiment in Siberia in the 40’s. Researchers bred foxes, kept all the ones that didn’t show as many signs of being afraid of humans, then subsequently bred those ones again (the rest were turned into furs to fund the research.) This process is kind of like that, but in reverse. Will say that these don’t seem to be truly domesticated bettongs, so not quite the same, but still interested.
(edit - spelling)
- cimmanom 8y agoIt looks like it was a short-term experiment (way shorter than the lifespan of a single individual). The actual paper indicates the "bootcamp" lasted 18 months. And they had a control with two pens, only one exposed to the predators.
- trhway 8y agosimilar to that foxes experiment, i think instead of just teaching bettongs to fear they should have just selectively bred those bettongs who is naturally most fearful. Giving the short lifespan and that such selective breeding would take only a few generations, in several years they would have a population of bettongs genetically wired to fear the predators and thus much better fit for survival in the current conditions.