Self-domestication - in Animals - Foxes

Foxes

Research done beginning in 1959 by the Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev on silver foxes selectively bred only for tameness revealed that a whole range of other physical and behaviourial features, such as neoteny, also appeared along with the tameness, characteristics that were not specifically the result of selective breeding by humans. White spots on their fur, floppy ears, rolled tails and smaller skulls were seen in the tame foxes, and the foxes were also described as "incredibly endearing."

Belyaev and his successors also selectively bred wild rats for tameness, with similar results. These results with selective breeding suggest that the natural process of self-domestication can occur within a single human generation.