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Why haven’t farm animals evolved to protect themselves against humans? – Sarang, age 15, Latur, Maharashtra, India

Why haven’t farm animals evolved to protect themselves against humans? – Sarang, age 15, Latur, Maharashtra, India

Have you ever wondered why dogs get the zoomies or wag their tails? One answer comes from a rather unexpected source: foxes.

A team of scientists bred captured silver foxes for tameness, choosing the least fearful and aggressive animals to become parents. They repeated this process with each litter of pups, avoiding any training and limiting their exposure to people.

Within six generations, the foxes began to show some familiar, doglike behaviors. Some wagged their tails as people approached, licked their hands and even liked to be petted.

These silver foxes are a remarkable example of selective breeding, where people choose animals with particular traits to produce the next generation of animals.

Selective........

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