Wouldn't it be great if you could have your own pet fox? Thanks to a bizarre Cold War, Soviet-era eugenics experiment, you can!
We think of the fox as a wild animal. One which looks cuddly, and which may even integrate into a family to some extent. But retaining all of its wild impulses and instincts, thus making it a bad pet indeed - bad for its owners, and bad for the fox.
But wouldn't it be great if you could have your own pet fox? Something as tame as a dog or cat? Thanks to a bizarre Cold War, Soviet-era eugenics experiment, you can!
The Domesticated Silver Fox (a.k.a. Siberian fox) is the result of fifty years of breeding. In 1959, a team of Soviet scientists requisitioned a bunch of silver foxes from a fur farm, and they began an experiment. They would test each fox for its wildness, based on a single factor: the animal's flight distance. "Flight distance" means how close you have to get to an animal before it runs away.
