Scientists don't know exactly how wolves were domesticated into early dogs, but it's possible that they domesticated themselves by choosing to coexist with humans so that, a new study finds, they ...

For thousands of years, dogs have been man’s best friend. When humans still lived primarily in hunter-gatherer societies, dogs were among the first domesticated animals. And as the millennia passed, ...

Only a handful of wild animal species have been successfully bred to get along with humans. The reason, scientists say, is ...

The Fox Experiment That Changed Everything In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitry Belyaev began selectively breeding silver foxes ...

For decades, scientists, policymakers, graziers and land managers have been locked in a surprisingly high-stakes debate over what defines a dingo. Are these wild canids their own species? Or are they ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. From their wolf ancestors to today’s sweet, loyal ...

A recent study, published in Biology Letters, challenges the long-held notion that domestication is the primary driver of reduced brain size in domesticated animals, specifically dogs. Employing a ...

This article predates Brown Brothers Media’s ownership of Science Blog and has not been reviewed under our current editorial process. It is preserved as part of the publication’s archive. Figure 1 ...

Since their domestication millennia ago, dogs have been man’s best friend, and aside from friendship, centuries of selective breeding have tailored them for tasks like herding, hunting and guarding — ...