英语听力文摘 English Digest 187、驯化狐狸

（单词翻译）

　　Dmitry Belyaev, Foxes, And Domestication¹
你与猫或狗玩耍过吗？在远古，狗对我们的祖先来说还是一种比较危险的动物呢。那么，现在为什么它们这么听话？我们的祖先又是如何驯化它们的呢？今天，就让我们一起听听研究人员是怎样驯化狐狸的吧。
Have you ever played with a dog or cat and wondered why they are so tame? How did our ancient ancestors take wild, and potentially dangerous, carnivores and turn them into “man’s best friend”?
In 1959 a Russian geneticist name Dmitry Belyaev began an experiment to try and understand how domestication worked. He started by selecting 130 of the captive wild foxes from a nearby fur farm that showed the least amount of fear and aggression³ towards humans.

　　With each successive generation he selected which foxes would breed based solely⁴ on tameness. Only the foxes that behaved in the friendliest and tamest manner towards humans were selected to breed.
Amazingly, after only ten years of selected breeding, the team had developed a strain of foxes with dog like tameness towards humans: tail wagging, face licking, playful friendliness⁵. But that’s not all. Although the scientists always selected foxes based only on behavior, the tame foxes have several other traits that differentiate⁶ them from wild foxes.
Traits including: white patches of fur on the face, the loss of the fox’s strong musky odor, wagging tails that curl up over the back, drooping⁷ ears and dog like barks and whines⁸.
Interestingly, many of these are traits that Darwin noted⁹ in the Origin of Species as being common among most domesticated¹⁰ animals.
Now in the 50th year, the research is ongoing¹¹. The project’s long term goals are not just to understand the process of domestication, but to identify the genes¹² that influence tame and aggressive behaviors.
The team also hopes that defining the genes important to friendly, outgoing and social behaviors in foxes, might someday lead to genetic² discoveries that may help treat or prevent autism and other human neurological disorders¹³ in which social reciprocity is impaired¹⁴.