We were super excited to get a visit from world renowned canine behavior expert, Dr. Clive Wynne and two of his colleagues, Lisa Gunter and David Beckström-Sternberg. We decided to perform an impromptu experiment assessing the prosocial behavior of the Russian domesticated foxes, the US tame fox and primitive dogs, New Guinea Singing dogs towards humans. This experiment has been performed on domesticated dogs and wolves. We were very curious to see how they would respond; would they act more like domesticated dogs, or wolves, or neither. Well, we can certainly say that we were fascinated while watching each animal perform testing with a non-familiar person and a familiar person (in a familiar environment). We tested 8 animals in total.

This type of behavioral testing on the Russian domesticated foxes and US tame foxes is limited and we believe that this testing, combined with genetic testing, is critical to truly understanding the difference and similarities of these canids and the domestication process. We cannot wait to see the results of this small pilot study.

Sophie, a Russian domesticated fox during the non-familiar, passive testing.

Stay tuned to learn more.

Boris, a Russian domesticated fox during the non-familiar, active testing.

Viktor, a Russian domesticated fox during the non-familiar, active testing.

If you are interested in collaborating with the JABCECC, scheduling a visit, or a photoshoot - please reach out to us. We are a non-profit and donations are also welcomed.

Huge Thanks to Clive Wynne and his team from the Canine Science Collaboratory at ASU.