About the experiment

From the Institute's web site:

To investigate the domestication process as an evolutionary phenomenon, academician D.K. Belyaev began a wide-scale experiment on the domestication of different animals.  A population of silver-black foxes, which may be considered genetically adapted to humans and man-made factors, was bred through a multi-year selection process.  It is extremely important that such behavior develops on a genetic basis and is stably preserved both in ontogenesis and in further generations.  The population is unique as it has no analogs elsewhere in the world.

According to the recommendation of the Permanent Committee of the European Convention on the Protection of Animals, both captured and those used for economic purposes, researchers of many countries create conditions of captivity in which animals feel comfortable and are under low stress.  The drawback of this method is that it does not alter the animals genetically and does not result in breeding adaptable caged foxes, but simply minimizes the negative effect of captivity.  The unique population of foxes bred by Russian researchers allows them to be maximally adaptable to captivity.  Using foxes of the domesticated population with farm foxes considerably alleviates any problems raised by the European Committee on Animal Protection. 

All indices of stress-induced hormone responses considerably differ in the domesticated foxes and are significantly lower in domesticated foxes than the farm population. 

Successful reproduction in captivity is an integral adaptability index.  Brood number is significantly larger in domesticated foxes than in the farm population.