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In Pictures

Gallery|Science and Technology

In Pictures: Siberian scientists breeding foxes for pets

A decades-long Soviet-era experiment in Siberia might offer a window into human evolution.

A man strokes a fox cub at Belyayev fox facility. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
Published On 18 Oct 202018 Oct 2020
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Soaking up the sun in their garden, Sergei Abramov and his wife Tatiana are playing with their furry pet, Plombir, who wags his tail and vies for treats by obeying his owners’ commands.

But Plombir is not “man’s best friend”.

He is a fox, bred by Russian scientists as part of a decades-long experiment in Siberia to study how wild animals are domesticated.

Plombir is happy to be led around by his owners on a leash, but, as he pulls towards chickens safe in their cage, it’s clear he hasn’t lost all his wild instincts.

“Yes, he already tried to eat our chickens and run away,” says Abramov, 32, who lives in the suburbs of Russia’s third-largest city, Novosibirsk.

His wife, biologist Tatiana Abramova, 33, says she always wanted to live with a fox and that Plombir is “friendly and kind” but not very obedient.

“He jumps on tables, or jumps inside the fridge. He steals things and hides them,” she said.

In 1959, Soviet geneticists Dmitry Belyaev and Ludmila Trut launched the experiment on a farm in the Akademgorodok scientific research centre near Novosibirsk.

Their goal was to understand how the domestication syndrome worked by domesticating foxes and studying how they could have evolved into the loyal and loving dogs we know now.

For decades, researchers at the farm have selected the most friendly animals for breeding.

“We are trying to understand which genes change and how they change,” said Yuri Gerbek, one of approximately 15 scientists working at the centre that is home to nearly 1,000 foxes.

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Belyaev died in 1985 and the experiment was nearly shuttered over a lack of funding during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the economic crisis that followed.

It survived and has won international attention since the emergence of DNA sequencing techniques that made it possible to study the foxes’ genetic code.

A fox cub at Belyayev fox facility of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, outside Novosibirsk. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
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An emloyee feeds foxes at the facility, which is home to almost 1,000 foxes. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
The official start of the Soviet experiment to better understand the domestication of animals by humans began in 1959, initiated by geneticists Dmitry Belyaev and Ludmila Trut on a farm in Akademgorodok. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
Their primary objective was to domesticate the fox, to understand how it evolved into a loyal and loving dog, and understand what this domestication says about the genetic evolution of species. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
This artificial selection "changes everything in their body", said Yuri Gerbek, 36, chief specialist at the Belyayev fox facility. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
"We are trying to understand which genes change and how they change," Gerbek explained. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
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The Belyayev fox facility has wild as well as tamed foxes "for comparison". [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
Due to a lack of funding, the animals are kept in old, rusty cages. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]
The experiment could also offer a window into all evolution. [Alexander Nemenov/AFP]


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