No abstract

The Russian Farm-Fox Experiment is the best known experimental study in animal domestication. By subjecting a population of foxes to selection for tameness alone, Dimitry Belyaev generated foxes that possessed a suite of characteristics that mimicked those found across domesticated species. This 'domestication syndrome' has been a central focus of research into the biological pathways modified during domestication. Here, we chart the origins of Belyaev's foxes in eastern Canada and critically assess the appearance of domestication syndrome traits across animal domesticates. Our results suggest that both the conclusions of the Farm-Fox Experiment and the ubiquity of domestication syndrome have been overstated. To understand the process of domestication requires a more comprehensive approach focused on essential adaptations to human-modified environments. The Origins of Domestication SyndromeThe domestication syndrome describes a suite of behavioral and morphological characteristics consistently observed in domesticated populations. It was first described in animals (although not named as such) by Charles Darwin [1]. The term itself, coined by botanists in the early 1900s [2,3], was applied to animals in the 1980s [3]. Usage has risen dramatically since the mid-1990s, by more than 20-fold (see the supplemental information online) [4].The concept of a domestication syndrome is appealing. The grouping of a collection of traits allows easier identification and facilitates the definition of domesticated taxa. It also inspires a search for causal mechanisms, whether genetic or environmental, responsible for their collective appearance. Characteristics attributed to domestication syndrome vary, but include tamability (see Glossary), loss of reproductive seasonality, and changes in coat color, ear form, tail form, and craniofacial morphology (Figure 1) [1,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].

No abstract

No abstract

Several neo-tropical butterfly species were presented to 171 wild-caught adult Blue Jays to determine if insects of unfamiliar color pattern would elicit an attack response from an avian predator regardless of the visual characteristics of the prey. It was found that unfamiliar insects do not always elicit an attack response. Four aspects of the birds' behaviors were noted: 1) the initial responses to various training diets were different; 2) the training diets had a direct effect on the reactions of the birds to new insects; 3) there was a difference in the attack responses of the birds to different novel insects ; 4) there was an interaction between training diets and novel insects. Four aspects of avian feeding behavior were discussed as possible explanations of the results : preference for familiar food, generalization from previous experience, innate avoidance of specific stimuli, and innate avoidance of novel stimuli.