Designing the Perfect Pet

[digitS']

It is all in the most recent edition of National Geographic!

Since the theme is centered around the issue of domestication and there are so many TEG gardeners with livestock . . . . I thought you might be interested .

The article is mostly about the research done to domesticate the fox! Charming critters!

Great issue! Far more apropos to gardening is an article on "Pollinators: Birds, Bees . . . Lemurs?" Yeah, there are even some really odd pollinators! Wonderful photographs, as always.

I'm looking forward to "Circling Alaska in 176 Days" but am reading about the Shaolin Kung Fu temples right now! Yes, decided to start those winter exercises to be ready for the gardening season.

Who knows? Maybe Kung Fu will get me in good enuf shape to go out for the soccer league this year!



You can click on the pic for more of these plans while I check to see if the ground is still frozen!

Steve's digitS'



. . . just kidding about the snow here . . .

 

[thistlebloom]

I love that snow diving fox pic
But kids, don't try this at home!

 

[thistlebloom]

HAhaha! I just took the time to let the song load... that was funny... now I get it!
(We sang that song a lot around our house for several years when our boys were in martial arts)

you're a funny guy Mr. digitS

 

[Greenthumb18]

That fox animation is cute, poor thing took a dive in the water. I guess that lake wasn't frozen.

 

[Collector]

I really like that song we used to sing it all the time when we were kids. It is amazing that they can here a mouse under that snow and pinpoint its location before diving. We need one that can do that on bare dirt, it would help at planting time!!

 

[hoodat]

I read an article recently (sorry can't remember enough to get a link) that said some stone age graves were found with foxes ritually buried with human remains as though they had been pets. The conclusion was that at one time foxes were domesticated as dogs now are. Foxes make good pets but are more nervous than dogs are. When I was a kid we raised an abandoned fox kit and he ended up semi domesticated. He'd come and go as he pleased, sometimes staying gone till he wasn't able to catch enough to feed himself, then show up for a meal. Actually, he acted more like a cat than a dog.

 

[April Manier]

Wow that's great!

I would love to have a cuddly cute fox, but it takes many years of domestication to get the wild out of animals. Not too sure the fox wants to be domesticated. Look at all that fun it has!

 

[digitS']

The breeding program began in 1959 so this has been a multiple generation experiment.

Wikipedia

Cornell University, Fox Domestication Photo's! And, videos!!

Steve
Cornell is always involved in something i am interested in . . .

 

[crimsonred]

Nice pic I also like that fox in the snow. It would be nice to have a fox as a pet, I find them really cute and I think with just a little work on how to train them, it will work. Something to think about... it's possible

 

[patandchickens]

It's an extraordinarily cool and informative study. Originated more or less by accident as byproduct of trying to "improve" foxes for the fur industry. It has shed tremendous light into the likely history of the domestication of dogs. Selecting for tamer temperament in the foxes -- not selecting for anything else, just temperament -- all of a sudden started producing foxes with many of the same traits that separate dogs from wolves, e.g. white markings, shorter face, different tail, etc. They now sell the culls to continue funding the research.

Supposedly though they are not great pets from a PRACTICAL standpoint, as they have fox musk and fox urine odor, which is to say they supposedly stink like CRAZY


Pat, who kind of wishes that someone 20,000 yrs ago had taken it into their head to domesticate otters.