Friday Chat w/Vlad
Hey, it’s Vlad. I thought today we would put our intellectual hats on and discuss a question we get quite often. What is the difference between taming and domestication? Now I know this is not the most entertaining conversation. It’s certainly not as exciting as talking about Yuri getting his head caught in stuff.
I am a Russian domesticated fox. This means that first humans selectively bred my relatives for a particular trait, tameness. They did this for many years to a lot of foxes. They did this so much that it actually changed my genetics. This means that my offspring, if I were to have them, and we all know I am the most eligible bachelor around here, would be tame just because the fact that they possess my genetics. If someone were to take a wild fox baby and raise it away from other foxes and only around humans, this fox could grow up friendly to people. This fox is not domesticated because if it’s offspring were not socialized around people they would be just like other wild foxes. It’s tamed.
This can get tricky because different animals can be more or less susceptible to being tamed. Us foxes being of superior intellect do not look a gift horse in the mouth. If a human seems nice enough and wants to give us all the food we want, who are we to turn it down. We are ok calling this human our friend. Other animals might not be such opportunists. Some have even questioned if all house cats are actually domesticated or are they just tamed animals using humans for their tender vittles.
Animals like Nick and Stumpy fall into a grey area. While they can be quite friendly with people and they certainly enjoy a comfy sofa... mostly to sleep on but sometimes to eat, we don’t know enough about their evolutionary history to definitively categorize them. We do know that NGSDs can live in the wild without human help quite well and if not socialized can be very wary of humans. So they remain a enigma wrapped in a mystery.
Next time we speak we will go back to our normal fun and hijinks. I will see if I can get some pics of Yuri with a “kick me” sign stuck to his back side. That will be worthy of a lengthy chat.
Vlad out.