In General Psychology, we use the David Myers text, and it describes some experiments on domestication in Russia, which have shown domesticated foxes to be produced in a relatively short number of generations through Mendelian genetics. The New York Times has an article on the recent activity of this Russian research enterprise.
There was far more to Belyaev’s experiment than the production of tame foxes. He developed a parallel colony of vicious foxes, and he started domesticating other animals, like river otters and mink. Realizing that genetics can be better studied in smaller animals, Belyaev also started a study of rats, beginning with wild rats caught locally. His rat experiment was continued after his death by Irina Plyusnina. Siberian gray rats caught in the wild, bred separately for tameness and for ferocity, have developed these entirely different behaviors in only 60 or so generations.
Link to the article.
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