Dmitri Belyaev

Dmitri Belyaev is nominated for the "Best Breakthrough in Domestication" award.  His work with the silver fox has opened new doors for many scientists studing the evolution of the domestic dog.  Dmitri's project started fifty years ago.  Originally, fox fur traders would raise foxes on farms and then kill the foxes for their fur.  The traders wanted an easier animal to handle.  The traders went to the Central Research Laboratory of fur breeding in Moscow.  The research center picked a new geneticist.  His name was Dmitri Belyaev.  Dmitri had no idea what he was about to discover.


 

Dmitri started his work in 1959.  The project was funded by the Soviet Union.  Dmitri wasn't sure if making a tamer fox was even possible.  He went into his project without a clue of what he was doing.  Many scientists were researching how the dog became domesticated but they had no writing or documented evidence of wolves becoming domesticated into 'man's best friend'.  Dmitri's experiment had never been attempted before.  Some scientists even believed that it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to get an animal to become domesticated.  Fifty years later, the domesticated silver fox was genetically reliable to be tame.  Dmitri Belyaev changed many scientists understanding of domestication.  It is possible that the wolf could have been tamed within a hundred year time frame and transformed into a reliable companion.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the project ran into financial problems.  In 1996, the project had 700 domesticated foxes but now they are left with only 100.  The project earns money by selling the foxes as pets to households around the world but they still have problems with funding.  In a couple of years, Dmitri's work will be lost.  The information that Dmitri discovered was amazing and it changed the understanding of genetics forever.

Dmitri still lives in Russia.  He is 76 years old and is retired. 

To view the experiment, click here.