Speciesism

Speciesism is the assignment of different values, rights, or special consideration to individuals based solely on their species.

One way that foxes are treated differently than other animals is those specific animals that are treated as companions for humans.  These specific foxes might be allowed into a home, and be handled by humans.  Wild foxes rarely get handled, let alone get close enough to be in range of humans.  It can be argued that foxes can be held in higher esteem in comparison to other wildlife animals, because they have been seen as pets.

However, they are not as close to normal household pets as the dog may be, because they are still farmed for their fur, which is reserved to a few different species, such as the mink and rabbit.  People wouldn't think of making a dog fur coat, for example.  

Still in other instances, they are still viewed simply as pests, as they have for centuries.

The jury is still out on what exactly a fox is to people, and has a wide range of opinions and thoughts, making it very hard to lock down on answer.  As time continues on there might be a radical shift as domesticated foxes become more prevalent in the United States and elsewhere.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism

http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html#humans

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/wildlife/directory_show.cfm?species=redfox
http://cdn.slidesharecdn.com/ss_thumbnails/speciesism-111001144845-phpapp01-thumbnail-4.jpg?cb=1317498589

Ethology

Ethology is the study of behaviors, normally animals, in their natural environments. This would include the study of emotions and intelligence observed in the animals.  This can be difficult to deduce, as we cannot ask most animals what is going on in their heads and get a response, so we have to do our best to observe and stay as unbiased as possible.

With emotions, there is a division between primary and secondary emotions.  Primary ones would be emotions that don't require thought to ascertain.  They would include fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, excitement, and anger.  These primary feeling are what all other feelings come from.  Secondary emotions are ones that require reflection or thought to understand, and can include love, embarrassment, guild, jealousy and more.  Secondary emotions are believed to require memory, and generally lead to better decision making abilities in the future.

Foxes, like most mammals, have primary emotions that are easy to see.  Like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO_KOB-gUps

Most of us have hear the phrase clever as a fox, and it has been seen that they have an innate knack for solving problems, such as this clever hunting adaptation:
http://www.livescience.com/12436-wily-fox-clever-hunting-tricks.html   

Intelligence is a vague thing to talk about, as there are different types of intelligence.  The red fox is adaptable, as seen in it residing in a multitude of different habitats and clever by being able to break in to cages to receive prizes.  Recently, with the domestication, they have been able  to read cues better from humans.  Before only dogs were known to be able to understand when a human was pointing that they should follow the finger, but the domesticated fox is able to comprehend the concept as well.  So in certain instances Vulpes vulpes is quite an intelligent animal.

By: Kieran Meehan

Sources:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethology
http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/primary_secondary.htm
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/fox_hunting.asp

Current Social Perceptions

The perceptions of an animal can differ between continents, countries, states, or professions.  Each person is  going to have a separate opinion on something, and that is the same case for animals.  The personal image of any animal can often be influenced by outside sources as well, especially for the animals that people normally won't be able to seen on a frequent basis.

Some of the positive ways that they are viewed could be seeing them in nature allows people a happiness in an intrinsic sense.  With domestication of foxes becoming more prevalent, some people are now keeping them as pets, which give a feeling of companionship similar to people with cats and dogs.  People who raise foxes for fur see them as a source of revenue, which would be positive for the worker of a fur farm.



Here's a really current look at how some people see the fox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

Negative views often come from people who deal with raising animals, in particular, poultry, as foxes have been known to go to a farm and kill hens for food.  Another negative view can be that foxes, like many woodland creature have the ability to be a vector (carrier) for diseases such as rabies.  In Australia foxes are considered a threat to native species of rodents, which the foxes hunt, and is a large concern for these species as numbers continue to decline.

Sources:
http://www.ypte.org.uk/animal/fox-red-/122
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html#humans
http://eol.org/pages/328609/details
http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/Island_Invasives/pdfHQprint/4Parkes.pdf
http://www.insightofanintern.com/2012/11/06/nablopomo-5-in-defence-of-the-red-fox/

Social History and Domestication

As stated earlier, foxes have a distinct history of being wildlife, exotic as well as domesticated.  Because of this they have a rich background with humans.

For thousands of years, foxes have been hunted for multiple reasons, such as fur, meat, and more recently, sport.  The sport of fox hunting was incredibly popular with the English from the 16th century all the way to 2005, when it was deemed illegal.  Though it is best known for taking place in Great Britain, fox hunting happened throughout Europe, North America, and Australia.  The hunts used hounds to track down the fox when it would be killed.

In more recent years (1800's) fur farming has been a part of the history between foxes and humans.  The fur trade was very large for well over 100 years and was very lucrative.  Keeping the foxes in cages and breeding them for fur changed them from their wild counterparts as well.  Almost a psudeo-domestication effort as the animals became easier to tame, and more calm in the presence of humans.  In the last few years animals welfare and rights have become a very powerful force in animal industries, changing public perception of animal products.  With these groups, opinion on fur has changed from a status symbol to something to be scorned.  Fur farms are still present in the world, but in decreased numbers.

While the fur industry was a stepping off point for domestication of the red fox, real experiments have been taking place in Russia.  The experiment started in 1959 and is still going on to this day.  The goal was to study the domestication process and the silver fox (a subspecies of the red fox and still Vulpes vulpes) was chosen due to it being genetically similar to the wolf, the animal that dogs come from.  The process began by looking to the foxes that were most tame and breeding them together.  This was repeated each generation, while being careful to avoid inbreeding, since.  The results have been that the foxes used for breeding are excited to see and interact with humans, in many ways like a dog, showing that domestication process happens by looking for the most tame animals.  There were side effects of looking for the  most tame animals lead to changes in the phenotype of the foxes, which would keep floppy ears longer than wild ones, would have curly tails, and smaller skulls.


http://alligator-sunglasses.com/post/15127294524/just-a-pet-fox

Sources:
http://www.ypte.org.uk/animal/fox-red-/122
http://usfoxshipperscouncil.org/201204history-of-fox-farming-2
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/1999/2/early-canid-domestication-the-farm-fox-experiment/1

Background Information

Before I go farther into the social deconstruction of the Red Fox, I figure that it would be useful to give some background information on the animal.

The Red fox is a mammal fairly closely related to the wolf, jackals, and other fox breeds.  The red fox came about roughly 2.5 million years ago from the Eurasian Red Fox.  The species came about in Europe and passed through the Eurasian landmass and made its way to North America via the Bering ice bridge. 

The red fox is a short animal with a long body.  On average, they are about 14-20 inches tall at shoulder, while their body is anywhere from 18-35 inches long, with the tail being another 13-21 inches.  The normal Red fox is an orange color over most of its body with a white underbelly and neck and will have black stockings on their feet.  However it should be pointed out that each subspecies is going to have different sizes, fur colors and appearances.  They live for about 5 years on average in the wild.

Vulpes vulpes have a great diversity of subspecies, such as the Silver fox, commonly found in Russia, European Fox, and Arabian fox,  though there are many more.  Foxes also come in different morphs, or fur colors, which can be seen on the Wikipedia page listed below.  Their coat will aslo change with the passing of the seasons to help keep themselves safe.

Red foxes are hardy animals that can survive in many different environments.  They can be anywhere from the arctic to a desert, woodland and prairie.  They have been found as high up as 4500 feet above sea level as well.  They are actually the most widespread candid in the world.  

Diet wise, Red foxes are omnivores, which means that they can eat both meat and vegetation and have a wide diet which includes rodents, roots, berries, birds, reptile, fruits, insects, etc.  They are fairly solitary creature and hunt by themselves.

Foxes have a breeding season during winter, from about November through February.  Baby foxes, called kits, are born about two months later to an average of four to six per season.

Sources:

http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html#evolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox#Description

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Vulpes_vulpes/

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/redfox.htm
http://waitanotherday.com/2010/04/22/vulpes-vulpes/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Vulpes_vulpes_colour_variations.jpg

Species Identification

The species that I have decided to use for this project- The Social Deconstruction- is the Red Fox, or Vulpes vulpes.  The red fox is an interesting animal because it doesn't fit into a certain role, such as wild animal, domesticated, or exotic.  I would say that it fits into each category.  It is a wild animal because they exist in the forests over most of North America.  However, it doesn't hold itself only to North America, but over most of the globe, especially the northern hemisphere as well as Australia, as seem in this picture...

http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html

Since 1959 there has been an ongoing experiment on domestication in Russia where researchers have been studying how domestication has happened using the Silver Fox, which is a subspecies of the red fox.  In the years since, they have successfully made the silver fox into an animal that not only tolerates being around humans, but can be excited to be with them, and are looking to be a new pet for people who might want one.

The fox is an animal that fits into a lot of different categories and has some amazing history behind it.


Taken by: David Element

Sources:
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html
http://www.david.element.ukgateway.net/mammals10redfoxes6.htm