Fox Talk by L. E. Carmichael

I was about to review another book when I came across Fox Talk and read it in ten minutes, then read it again. I am a dog lover, and have an armchair expert’s interest in how dogs work. I know that they are one of evolution’s biggest success stories. Dogs love us, but as it turns out, so do domesticated foxes.Most people are probably somewhat familiar with Dmitri K. Belyaev’s breeding experiments with silver foxes in the Soviet Union that began in the 1950s, and with how the research team managed to breed out fear of humans by the tenth generation. (By contrast, domestication of dogs took  thousands of years.) The work continues today at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics. The book introduces young readers to the current work of Russian zoologist Svetlana S. Gogoleva.

I learned a lot from this book, which will now take me somewhat further than the armchair. For example, domestication in foxes and dogs changes their DNA. A wild dog and a wild fox stay wild even with a domesticated adoptive mother, and vice versa. Dogs and foxes make sophisticated sounds for communication (a bark is not just a bark) that are different from their feral ancestors’ and have lots to do with winning our love, attention, and (in my dog’s case) ability to provide food.

Young teens will learn straightforward information about DNA instructions for communication and will likely find much of the information intriguing and even amusing. For instance, the reason dogs play at any age is because they are domesticated. In the wild, play is only for wolf and fox pups. Domestic foxes sound like they’re laughing when they ask for playtime, and sound like geese or wild monkeys in full playing mode.

Carmichael’s theme in Fox Talk (which would work well for middle school science classes) is that foxes were domesticated so humans could learn about the pets we will do anything for. Humans owe the tame foxes a debt, and need to take care of this new species variant. Domestic foxes are generally bad pets because they really need a career, and a restless fox, though loving, is a nuisance. They are perceived as a danger when they get out of their pen and are readily killed by humans.

Fox Talk is illustrated by Jody Bronson and designed by Michael Penman. It has 62 pages, including a useful glossary and appendix information about owning a domestic fox, and the prejudices governments have against them. It is published by Ashby-BP Publishing.