African Legends Rhodesian Ridgebacks

Ridgebacks are at work protecting park rangers and protecting wildlife from dangerous poachers in Kruger National Park.

The following excerpt is from a Kruger National Park website article. A park ranger's ridgeback protected him and helped to save the life of a water buffalo calf caught in a poacher's net.

"Rangers are allowed dogs in the KNP for specific reasons. “They act as an early warning system when we encounter dangerous game especially on foot patrols. They also assist us when dealing with the follow up of wounded or problem animals,” says Neels (van Wyk). He believes this was a textbook example of how Boesman saved the life of the calf and protected the rangers in the process."

Click on this link to read the full article. http://www.krugerparktimes.co.za/krugerpark-times-2-9-dog-helps-save-buffalo-19595.html
 

Thoughts on Function & Structure:

"I have looked at hundreds of images of early Ridgebacks, and Ridgeback "types" and I admit, I have seen some wildly different looking Ridgebacks! It was to be expected in the early days when the breed was so young. Some dogs were extreme straight in stifle. Some heads were massive. Some coats were very hairy. Many dogs had multiple crowns. Colour was not uniform. Some were lacking in substance. Some were of a very heavy rough type. But many were balanced animals depicting the combination of strength, stamina and muscular activity that Barnes was describing.

Greater uniformity was introduced by way of the standard and judicious breeding and a unique inspection system in the old days. This stood the breed in great stead over the next few decades and really consolidated the type."

Linda Costa, author of Rhodesian Ridgeback Pioneers                                                                                                Sarula Rhodesian Ridgeback Kennel, formerly in Zimbabwe, now in Australia.

RR were meant to track all day with a fair amount of speed and then bring an animal to bay after a long and arduous trail and still have enough energy left at the end to be agile and fast enough to hold the prey at bay until the hunter came up on horseback. So with this in mind the early breeders drafted the KUSA Breed standard and felt that the form as described could fulfill its function.

S. Woodham of Rindurr Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

"The Ridgeback, singly or in a pack, will silently track the lion to its lair and only on discovery of its quarry will it give tongue; tanatlising, feinting, darting in and out, just beyond the reach of those fearful slashing claws, with the nonchalance of a matador; harassing and wearing it down until that majestic creature, bewildered by such elusive impudence and weary of trying to shake off its tenacious nuisance, presents a sitting target of injured majesty."

Captain T. C. Hawley