It's a dog's life...if you're a fox

[capt_buzzard]

They stare you in the face, wag their tails and whine with joy when anyone approaches.No, these are not dogs but a domesticated breed of fox that looks and behaves just like man's best friend.

After 45 years of selective breeding, and almost as many fox generations, scientists have produced what nature could not - a completely tame fox which eagerly follows his master's gaze. Foxes bred on a farm in Russian Siberia since 1959 not only look like dogs, they act like them in their ability to read someone's face for visual cues.

Dog's, which were domesticated from wolves more than 10,000 years ago, are one of the few animals with enough 'social intelligence' to follow the visual instructions shown in the expression of a human face or movements of a hand.

Scentists from Russia, Germany and the United States report today in the magazine 'Current Biology' on the results of tests on the foxes that put them on a par with dogs.



Independent News UK