[Photo by pica - pau, who also has an Etsy shop]
I don't normally buy the National Geographic magazine. Whilst the photography is always mind blowing, the content is often a bit thin, I find. But I absolutely had to get my hands on the March issue as it had an article about the domestication of animals, how dogs became our best friends - a topic rather close to my heart.
The article hangs on an experiment that's been going on in Russia, where gorgeous fluffy foxes have been selectively bred for years and years with those foxes who are most friendly to humans being chosen to breed. The end result is a fox that basically acts like a domesticated dog - it seeks out and enjoys human contact, wags it's tail, plays fetch and responds to basic commands (ah, so not quite like our two domesticated dogs then...). And to fund the ongoing research the clever boffins are trying to get permits to sell these happy foxes as pets! Foxes as pets? Death by foxie? I'll take two, thanks!
ps. I would strongly encourage you to go have a look at the photo gallery for the article. You will see a pig on a lounge chair, an angry mouse, lots of goats and a sheep prepped for a CT scan, which is way cuter than it sounds. And friendly fluffy foxes of course. Go look!
