The Fox Experiment Playthrough, Review, & Historical Context | Bits & Biology

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Welcome to Bits & Biology, a channel about board games from the perspective of a biologist gamer. In this video I play a solo game of The Fox Experiment followed by my review of the game. I also discuss the historical context for the experiment that the game is based on. Timestamps can be found below in case you want to skip around. The Fox Experiment is an open-drafting game for 1-4 players that uses dice to simulate results of six decades of research that provided insight into the evolutionary path from wolves to dogs. In this game you are drafting a pair of fox parents each round based on whether they have curly tails, floppy ears, white patches in their fur, and a vocal response to humans – traits associated with friendliness toward humans. You are hoping to breed friendlier pups than your opponents by rolling dice to simulate the genetic contributions of the parents. After 5 generations of pups, you will earn points based on pleasing patrons, fulfilling research goals, and breeding the friendliest foxes. This game is based on research started by Dmitry Belyaev during a time in Russia when it was incredibly dangerous to do so - a time when scientists, especially geneticists and evolutionary biologists, were under attack. The experiment continued for over six decades, first under the leadership of Dmitry Belyaev, and then under Lyudmila Trut. It has been hailed as a landmark study in evolutionary biology, shedding light on the evolutionary history of domesticated dogs. Let me know you liked the video by giving it a thumbs up! Have you played The Fox Experiment? What do you think of the game? What other games would you like to see on the channel? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 1:10 Setup 3:55 Round overview 4:31 Game overview 5:31 Game start 6:28 ** Round 1 ** 12:49 How the pups were named in the Belyaev study 19:59 ** Round 2 ** 21:47 A tangent about the research this game is based on 24:06 ** Back to the game ** 32:45 ** Round 3 ** 33:07 A story about one of the pups (Mechta) from the research 33:55 ** Back to the game ** 41:48 An important point about collecting trait tokens 42:44 ** Round 4 ** 57:34 ** Round 5 ** 1:10:34 How the first foxes in the study were chosen 1:11:20 ** Back to the game ** 1:12:41 ** End game scoring ** 1:15:22 Talking about Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut’s research 1:15:42 A bit of historical background leading up to Belyaev’s research 1:27:05 Belyaev’s interest in the evolution of domestication 1:27:51 Start of the fox domestication experiment 1:35:09 The link between the game and the research 1:35:47 ** Review ** 1:37:59 A tangent about the current state of the research 1:39:15 ** Back to the review ** 1:52:02 A story about the fox Pushinka 1:52:36 ** Back to the review ** Link to The Fox Experiment on Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368432/the-fox-experiment On the History of Genetics in the Soviet Union, Raissa L. Berg, 1983 (PDF): https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1983-627-5-Berg.pdf Early Canid Domestication: The Farm-Fox Experiment, Lyudmila Trut, 1999, American Scientist, 87(2):160 https://www.americanscientist.org/article/early-canid-domestication-the-farm-fox-experiment ----------------------------- If you like what you see, please subscribe to be notified when new videos are uploaded! My focus is board games that feature anything having to do with biology (e.g., nature, wildlife, plants, ecology, environmental science, etc). Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/vFGpeT8hM4 Read the Bits & Biology Blog! https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/12551 Follow Bits & Biology on social media: Instagram: @bitsandbiology Twitter: @bitsandbiology Support the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BitsandBiology Email for collaborations and partnerships: bitsandbiology@gmail.com