Scientists call this collection of shared changes 'domestication syndrome', and the reason it occurs is still hotly debated. 9News
Wild self-domestication is most common in isolated sub-populations, like on islands, and may overlap with a similar phenomenon known as the "island effect".
The first suggests it was caused when ancient humans selected animals for tamer behaviour, which somehow triggered all of the other traits too. They bred other foxes for aggression, but the aggressive foxes also developed domestication syndrome features.And in a similar experiment conducted in the 1930s, caged rats developed the same common changes, including tamer behaviour, despite no deliberate selection for tameness, or aggression.Instead, it might be caused by unintended shared effects from the new domestic environment.Crucially, it's not just new forces of selection, such as a human preference for tameness, that matters.
Competition for mating partners is also often reduced, so wild reproductive features and behaviours could decline, or disappear.This might alter certain features, but would certainly change natural metabolism and growth.
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