Moscow

Tail of woe: lack of money leaves the project to domesticate foxes facing an uncertain future.

A unique project in Siberia that has helped researchers understand how animals become domesticated could soon expire from lack of funds.

Researchers at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk have compressed into decades a process that might otherwise require thousands of years. Through intense selective breeding, they have turned the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) into an amiable, tail-wagging house pet.

The work, started in 1959 by the late geneticist Dmitry Belyaev, has demonstrated the close links between behavioural and developmental genetics.

The silver fox — known as the red fox in the United States — is closely related to the dog, but had never been domesticated. The 45,000 foxes so far involved in the Siberian project were chosen by researchers for their propensity to being tamed.

The selection process resulted in the emergence of traits in physiology, morphology and behaviour that are most noticeable in the changes in coat colour and the presence of floppy ears and curled tails.

But the institute lacks the $10,000 a year it needs to keep the project going. "This is the only kind of experiment of its kind in the world," says Ludmila Trut, head of the research group at the institute. "It would be a tragedy if it were to wither."

The research "is really important because evolutionary change in behaviour is very hard to study," says Deborah Goodwin, deputy director of the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Southampton in Britain.

The population of breeding foxes has been reduced from 700 to 100 since 1996 and the staff, too, is declining. The project is now overseen by seven researchers of retirement age.

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