Evidence has been found that foxes may have been kept as pets thousands of years ago.
I spoke with an archaeologist and a zoologist about the latest scientific findings and what they mean for our understanding of animal domestication in human history.
In Spain, the most recent study of archaeological burial sites where both foxes and humans were found, took place. There was an agricultural society that took care of livestock like sheep and cattle.
The bones were analyzed by researchers. They were able to find out more about the diet of individuals by studying the isotopes found in the bone. The last five to 10 years of an adult's life can be learned from their bones. The data for a young adult dog's diet lasts from six months to three years.
The lead researcher at the University of A Corua explained how many fox bones they found.
There were only domestic animals in the Can Roqueta burials. When collaborating with researchers from other sites, they saw that there were more cases and that the fox had a special value.
Some of the humans and dogs had the same diet as the foxes. The societies and foxes were thought to have had a lower level of interaction.
The team found that the one with the most human-like diet had healed broken bones. The way in which the bones were healed is compatible with the way in which people are injured.
The team working at Roque Canta was interested in the healed fracture in the fox's paw. When I collaborated with the zooarchaeologists, we predicted for the fox an isotopic signature that was different from that of a wild carnivore, but it turned out to be more special than anticipated.
The researchers found that the diet of the injured fox was similar to that of humans and their dogs. Young dogs at the site are rich in cereals. It's possible that the fox was being fed by humans before it died. The signature isn't specific enough to confirm this.
A study in Germany and Switzerland found differences between the diet of wild and domesticated animals. In that study, it was found that the diet of the fox was very different from that of humans.
The burial of a human with a fox took place around the same time as the other. The fox's bones were not treated with the other bones found at the burial site, but they were treated with red ochre, which is indicative of the significance of the fox. The human and the fox were kept together through the different burials.
The study was published 10 years ago. The appearance of dogs in the region pre-dates the burial of humans. It's difficult to figure out the social meanings of a human society thousands of years ago. It's not hard to imagine that at some point in the future, fox may be seen as an alternative to dogs.
A biology instructor at a university who has studied foxes in and around humans said that the animals are very Adaptable.
According to Black, foxes have a highly flexible diet and can use scraps from garbage bins, compost piles, pet food and other food sources. They can use high densities of prey species. Unlike some species that require large areas of old-growth forest or pristine wetlands to thrive, red fox will use a wide variety of habitat types and seem to particularly like edge habitats and areas where several different habitat types occur in close proximity.
Urban fox are a phenomenon for which we can find parallels in more recent times.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were fox records around urban areas. There are records of urban foxes in areas where they are native and in areas where they have been introduced.
These urban foxes were not popular. It is not easy to live next to animals.
Red foxes can become a nuisance if they interfere with human ideals. Red fox behavior such as raiding gardens, denning under porches and sheds, and defecating in yards is normal, but not everyone is willing to tolerate such unruly neighbors. People may have concerns about the health and safety of their pets. Even though fox attacks on people, dogs, and cats are rare, they can carry diseases that can be passed on to people and their pets.
There are records of the fox being kept as a pet. There are reports of tamer urban foxes being captured and kept as pets in a country with a lot of records of them. A fox was kept as a pet after it was captured in the city barracks.
When someone decided to keep a fox as a pet, it's not hard to imagine how similar the situation would have been in the past. We don't know a lot of things.
We still have a long way to go to answer the question of why our ancestors did not domesticate animals the way dogs did. Some of the critical remains may have already been unburied, waiting to be analyzed with new techniques.
It is possible that the skeleton of a fox found in an archaeological context has been classified as that of a hunted animal. She said that the idea that the fox was merely a wild animal is a preconceived idea. The presence of a fox may indicate a close relationship with a human buried in a funerary structure. It's important to pay attention to different kinds of evidence when approaching an archaeological context. The diet of these animals was similar to that of dogs and children. Our suggestion was that these were not wild animals. We could find similar cases if we reviewed more sites from this perspective.
Maria Gatta is passionate about the relationship between plants, animals, and humans. She is a biology consultant. You can follow her on social media.
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