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The domesticated silver fox (marketed as the siberian fox) is a domesticated form of the silver morph of the red fox. As a result of selective breeding, the new foxes not only have become tamer, but more dog-like as well.
The result of nearly 60 years of experiments in the Soviet Union and Russia, the breeding project was set up in the 1950's by the Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev. It continued today at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics at Novosibirisk, under the supervision of Lyudmila Trut.
The russian researchers have partnered with the American company SibFox to distribute these foxes as pets internationally, although at a very high price.
Domesticated foxes exhibit both behavioral and physiological changes from their wild forebears. They are friendlier with humans, put their ears down (like dogs), wag their tails when happy, and have begun to vocalize and bark like domesticated dogs. They have also developed colour patterns like domesticated dogs and have lost their distinctive musky 'fox smell'.
