World Views | Here’s something we can learn from the urban fox

Would you adopt a fox?
The prudent answer is “no”; foxes are wild animals. Or are they?
In something out of science fiction, new research suggests that we are now starting to see two different kinds of foxes: the wild and the domesticated. The research tells us something about mammals in general, including the beloved Canine Lupus Familiaris (also known as the dog) and Homo Sapiens. It is also uplifting – a hopeful sign in these dark days.
The relevant research, by Kevin Parsons of the University of Glasgow and colleagues, has a daunting title: “Skull morphology diverges between urban and rural populations of red foxes mirroring patterns of domestication and macroevolution.”
But the title contains a bombshell. For some time, urban populations of red foxes have been domesticating themselves in London and its environs. True, they’re not dogs, but they have been moving in that direction.
In areas around London, fox populations are looking different from their rural counterparts. Their snouts are shorter and wider. The differences between males and females are less pronounced. Their brains are smaller.
These changes are characteristic of a process identified by Charles Darwin and known as the “domestication syndrome.” If you compare dogs with wolves, you will see the same kinds of differences that are now separating urban foxes from rural ones.
As it happens, the new research fits well with pathbreaking work by Duke’s Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods on the domestication of dogs, bonobos and human beings.
In a recent book, Hare and Woods focused on the origins of dogs and lightly suggested that the idea of “survival of the fittest” might be replaced by that of “survival of the friendliest.” In a forthcoming book with that title, Hare and Woods focus on people – and contend that of the many human species, Homo Sapiens survived and prospered because it too engaged in a process of self-domestication, fueling trust and cooperation.
Hare and Woods note that if you traveled back 100,000 years, Homo Erectus would have been the best bet for the ultimate survivor among the multiple human species. They controlled fire, with which they cooked and warmed themselves. They were the first human species to use advanced stone tools. They had been around for 1.8 million years and so outlasted many other human species.
If you flashed forward 25,000 years, you would switch your bet to the Neanderthals. As tall as Homo Sapiens but stronger, the Neanderthals triumphed during the Ice Age. They made paintings and had advanced tools. They were accomplished hunters, using long, heavy spears.
But flash forward another 25,000 years, and Homo Sapiens is outstripping all other human species.
What made us so special? Hare and Woods urge that the answer lies in “a kind of cognitive superpower: a particular type of friendliness called cooperative communication.”
More than other humans, we showed an ability to work with one another – not always, and not perfectly, obviously, but among the various human species, Homo Sapiens wins Olympic Gold for cooperation. Crucially, we are especially good at reading each other’s signals; we can tell what other people are feeling and thinking.
These abilities are “the gateway to a sophisticated social and cultural world.” The central reason that we flourished, and that other human species did not, is that we “excel at a particular kind of collaboration.” True, we are not the only species capable of collaboration. But we are uniquely good at it, as reflected in our buildings, our cities, and most of all our cultures and our norms.
Amid Covid-19, and protests over racial injustice, we are seeing a great deal of division, suspicion and polarization. At the same time, nations all over the world are experiencing extraordinary levels of cooperation, collaboration and trust. To take just one example, we are witnessing an outpouring of thinking about how to help the elderly during the pandemic, especially when they are isolated.
Evolution favors the most cooperative — and the friendliest. Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg
[Abridged]