Foxes dont follow a hierarchical system like dogs, cats or horses where there is an Alpha (the owner of the animal) whom they fall under in the pecking order.
Foxes like to shit and piss all over everything and burrow Into couches. Good luck with the fox thing.
None of them really have a hierarchy at all. Dogs, cats and horses are usually just a breeding pair and their offspring. Actually foxes are the only animal you named that does live in a structured hierarchy.
The guy that claimed it later proved it wasn’t true and has spent the rest of his life yelling about how he was wrong. With way too many people not listening. Wolves just exist in social groups.
The study was on captive wolves, so it was not accurate to wolves in their natural environment. All it shows is that if you restrict wolves to a very small amount of territory, they will fight for dominance, probably because they think it means food scarcity.
I personally dont think we’re close to fox total domestication however. It seems like we’ve selective breed a human friendly temperament but there’s more to it than that for the sake of pet-ness that I’m sure people like to have. That is the main point in my OP. They love to mark, burrow into furniture and cause other problems. Those issues I think will be harder to alter than temperament. Probably not in my lifetime or most of ours in my opinion.
This is all nice and cute but how will fox domestication be represented in the future by these types of comic strips?
There’s the famous Russian breeding experiment where they were able to breed domestic foxes.
The problem is that they pee every time they get excited. Which would be bad enough if it was a dog, but fox pee smells god awful.
I believe that study (I could be mistakenly thinking of another study) also showed that their bone density decreases with domestication.
Fox’s aren’t going to be domesticated.
Foxes dont follow a hierarchical system like dogs, cats or horses where there is an Alpha (the owner of the animal) whom they fall under in the pecking order.
Foxes like to shit and piss all over everything and burrow Into couches. Good luck with the fox thing.
Nope, none of that is true. None of those animals have Dominance hierarchies.
Sorry, meant pack hierarchy.
None of them really have a hierarchy at all. Dogs, cats and horses are usually just a breeding pair and their offspring. Actually foxes are the only animal you named that does live in a structured hierarchy.
Aren’t most foxes solitary?
I don’t know anything about it, but apparently alpha wolves are not actually a thing. Can someone chime in more info?
The guy that claimed it later proved it wasn’t true and has spent the rest of his life yelling about how he was wrong. With way too many people not listening. Wolves just exist in social groups.
The study was on captive wolves, so it was not accurate to wolves in their natural environment. All it shows is that if you restrict wolves to a very small amount of territory, they will fight for dominance, probably because they think it means food scarcity.
That hierarchy thing was proven to be bullshit ages ago
Can you send me a link to where you heard that?
From Scientific American, “Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth?”
Ah, fair enough, thank you.
I personally dont think we’re close to fox total domestication however. It seems like we’ve selective breed a human friendly temperament but there’s more to it than that for the sake of pet-ness that I’m sure people like to have. That is the main point in my OP. They love to mark, burrow into furniture and cause other problems. Those issues I think will be harder to alter than temperament. Probably not in my lifetime or most of ours in my opinion.
You might be today’s lucky 10,000, but have you heard of the Domesticated Silver Fox?
I’ve heard but I dont think that’s really considered domestication yet, only partly.
We’ve adjusted their temperament, but there is more to it than that.
They are not going to get domesticated WITH THAT ATTITUDE