Wolf Puppies Are Adorable, Then Comes the Call of the Wild
> something is deeply different in dog genes, or in how and when those genes become active, and scientists are trying to determine exactly what it isDarwin famously observed in the first chapter of On the Origin of Species that not one of our domestic animals can be named which has not in some country drooping ears.Darwin himself attributed it to "muscle misuse", the rationale being that domestic animals are not frequently enough on high alert, but genetic causes are more likely.The bizarre (and still running) experiment of Dmitry Belyaev who has been raising wild silver foxes for over 60 years to turn them into a domestic species by selecting the friendliest individuals at each generation seems to show that domestic characteristics, including droopy ears, appear "naturally" during this process, hinting at a genetic cause.Which genes is a tough question, but there are several programs looking for them.