How to Groom a Fox

Ginny Saunders

East of the Urals, Vulpes vulpes, 
silver fox, is the subject of study.
Our long experiment is not novel,

we simply repeat a Stone Age project
with clipboards and charts.
Since Khrushchev gave the nod, we’ve tamed time.

Daily rounds start at the musky 
end of camp. The wildest foxes snarl,
back away, heckled, they snap at my padded

chain-mail jacket. An offered hand a potential weapon, 
a threat; fear shrinks their cage.
A bribe of beloved dried reindeer, not taken.

They know we are the tricksters. We scientists 
who drive the reaction are its catalyst;
we watch and are watched by vulpine eyes. 

Finally, at the other end of camp, metal pens 
rattle, the ‘Elites’ jump, bare bellies,
whimper, beg for human contact.

Vixen ɸOX326, with her lush piebald coat, 
is my secret favourite: her curled brush wags,
she clambers with a desperate, infantile need for me.

Over time, callipers measured shrinking skulls,
modern assays detected hormonal shifts;
development arrested at puppyhood.

We plan their breeding, each generation
amplifying two views of Homo sapiens:
We are devoted carers. We are apex predators.

Ambivalent foxes, neither aggressive nor friendly, 
are released from the study.
Their unnaturally selected pelts are sold for fur.

The Science

At an experimental farm near the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Siberia, geneticists study the domestication of foxes. One of the longest scientific projects ever undertaken; it began in 1959 and continues to this day. After many generations, the selective (biased) breeding program has produced a domesticated line of foxes and a wild line, their evolution driven solely by their response to humans. Domestication has changed the planet, it is estimated that 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock, mostly domesticated cattle and pigs, 36% are human, and just 4% are wild animals.

The Poet

Ginny Saunders is a former molecular biology researcher. She previously worked on BSE and orchid:fungal symbiosis. She now lives in Wiltshire among the chalky white horses and writes poetry and prose. She has written an unpublished novel set in London's Natural History Museum and has had poetry published in Magma, The Bangor Literary Journal and the website ‘And Other Poems’.

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