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Reviews (6)
Oct 29, 2015
Outstanding series!
1 of 1 found this helpful Extremely well written, excellent cast, costumed, backdrops and one of the very best if not THE best final seasons and especially the best series ending EVER!
Jul 30, 2019
The Greatest Experiment on Evolution of all Time!
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution is not simply about turning a snarling, aggressive animal into a compliant human-oriented dog-like pet. It is a riveting account that winds its way through a dangerous political landscape and the frontiers of scientific discovery (Watson and Crick had only just uncovered the structure of DNA), describing the highs, and some lows, of a huge body of work that remains to this day a spectacular achievement.
During Stalin’s rule, Soviet dogma controlled the scientific community, dictating what would or would not be studied. Those who defied this political oppression with so much as a whisper of genetics were banished, jailed or killed. Thirty-five-year-old Dmitry Belyaev (1917-1985), a man of extraordinary charisma, political savvy and fearless determination, avoided the fate of other scientists, including that of his murdered brother, and began his fox domestication project in 1952. Under the supervision of graduate student, Lydumila Trut, foxes were carefully assessed in a standardized way and then selected for breeding based on reactions they demonstrated to human presence.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev’s hard line attitude towards the study of genetics softened. Belyaev was well-respected and he was permitted to undertake his large-scale fox domestication experiment. The government that only recently would have punished him for his theories on genetics, now supported him.
Based on selection of temperament alone, features that had been naturally suppressed in wild foxes began to emerge in just three generations after the first mating in 1960. Belyaev postulated that alterations in reproductive physiology, phenotype, dog-like behavior and even cognitive abilities – all characteristics of domesticate animals – were the result of selection and breeding for tameness only. Belyaev later identified this process of turning on inactive genes as destabilization selection.
In succeeding generations, the percentage of foxes born and assigned the “elite” classification escalated dramatically. These special foxes demonstrated an array of dog-like behaviors (licking and nuzzling human hands, rolling over for belly rubs, vocalizing in a way that was interpreted as soliciting human attention, wagging tails) and appearance (blue eyes, curled tails, changes in coat colors and patterns, floppy ears). There were anatomical and reproductive changes as well. These animals were a far cry from the “dragons” that Dr. Trut called the most savage of the wild foxes not chosen for the domestication project.
Belyaev and Trut turned their attention to the endocrine system and the study of hormones as the likely reason for these astonishing alterations in physiology, behavior and appearance. Although unsure how it happened, they felt that hormones such as epinephrine, cortisol, adrenalin, serotonin were responsible. They compared their levels in the aggressive versus the elite groups. The results proved the researchers were right. Genes were being activated or deactivated (not mutated) during the selection for tameness.
“Natural selection had stabilized the hormonal recipe for building a fox and its behavior in the wild. Now the selection for tameness, that he [Belyaev] and Lyudmila were imposing was destabilizing that formula.” (page 60)
“…when you radically change selection pressures by choosing the tamest animals you shake up everything, and a whole suite of changes follow.” (page 74)
The fox domestication project gained increasing favorable attention within the Soviet Union. And with the relaxation of communication and travel into and outside of its own borders, the fox domestication research gained much worldwide notice and support. After Belyaev’s death in 1985, Lyudmila Trut assumed leadership of the work. There was still so much to discover, to learn. But in 1987 the Berlin wall fell and the Soviet Union’s political landscape began to change radically. Economic chaos ensued. Funding for the project dried up. By 1999 the precious fox population plummeted from several hundreds to a mere 130. The situation was dire. It was Lyudmila Trut’s impassioned article published in the American Scientist and the subsequent international aid that spared the remaining foxes and the program itself from extinction.
Belyaev’s and Trut’s fox domestication research is a splendid narrative that scientists and non-scientists can enjoy, it should be considered required reading for anyone who breeds animals in order that the all the ramifications of doing so are well understood.
Mar 16, 2021
OEM Ford part
NOS Ford Product, so of course it fit perfectly. Easy to install.