http://www.youtube.com/user/neonas85
I'm stuck by not just the fact that they are like dogs, but that they are like particularly lovely dogs - highly interactive, attention-seeking, responsive.

And this... http://www.youtube.com/user/ZacharyB

Did you watch this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enrLSfxTqZ0

Interesting about the white patches and floppy ears. The white patches believed to relate to adrenalin on the same biochemical pathway as melanin. Less adrenolin produced with tameness so white patches appeared!

Fascinating. Can't say I love the conditions the foxes are kept in but that's another story.

BTW your second link goes to a rather strange animated spider clip first! I kept waiting for the foxes!

I've watched them all several times :-)

I agree about the conditions, but one of the things that I find really amazing about the foxes is that they are not deliberately socialised to ppl - according to the Trut article I've just been reading (it was written in '99) they are very minimally handled to try to keep it as clear as possible that the changes are genetic rather than caused by handling. The amount of handling they recieve, many breeds of dogs would produce far fewer individuals that act like their IEs (these are the individuals that are most sociable - that whine and lick and make strong attempts to get to ppl to interact with them). When she wrote that article 70-80% of the tame strain were IEs.

Trut also says that the different mutations are still relatively rare, although occurring at a much higher rate than in other foxes - the most common are the depigmentation that occurs at 16xs of the normal rate and the curled tail that occurs at about 10xs. I find those changes interesting, but not as interesting as the behaviour change.

I just put the link to his page rather than the actual fox clips, because he has 2 - did you look at them? because I think they are the most interesting of all - the actual testing of the foxes - a (very) tame and a not tame.

Really shows you the power that dog breeders have.