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The Rhodesian ridgeback is a dog breed developed in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe. Its European forebears can be traced to the early pioneers of the Cape Colony of southern Africa, who crossed their dogs with the semi-domesticated, ridged hunting dogs of the Khoikhoi. In the earlier parts of its history, the Rhodesian ridgeback has also been known as Van Rooyen's lion dog, the African lion hound or African lion dog—''simba inja'' in Ndebele, ''shumba imbwa'' in Shona—because of its ability to keep a lion at bay while awaiting its master to make the kill. The original breed standard was drafted by F.R. Barnes, in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in 1922. Based on that of the Dalmatian, the standard was approved by the South African Kennel Union in 1927. == History == The Khoikhoi people who occupied the Cape Peninsula when the Dutch began trading with the area during the mid 17th century, had a hunting dog which was described as ugly, but noted for its ferocity when acting as a guard dog. This dog measured approximately at the withers, with a lean but muscular frame. The ears have been described both as erect and hanging, but the most distinctive feature was the length of hair often growing in the reverse direction along its back. Within 53 years of Dutch settlement in Southern Africa, and the origins of the wagon-trekking Dutch ''boers'' (farmers in Dutch), later known as Afrikaaners, who converted vast stretches of wild veldt into farmland, hunted for meat and defended their cattle herds, staff, and homesteads from lion, the Europeans were using these local dogs themselves.〔Fox (2003): p. 6〕 By the 1860s, European settlers had also imported a variety of mainly European dog breeds to this area of Africa, including such dedicated hunting dogs as great Danes, bloodhounds, greyhounds, and terriers. These breeds were bred with the indigenous African dogs, including the dog of the Khoikhoi people, which resulted in the Boer hunting dogs, generically called names such as ''boerhund'' (Boer hound) in Dutch then its descendant language of Afrikaans, which are the chief forerunners to the modern Rhodesian ridgeback.〔 Other breeds came from Arabian traders around the Horn of Africa and with Asian immigrants, particularly into the Cape Colony, and jackal coursing introduced from British India brought lurchers from England and Ireland and the borzoi or Russian wolfhound, and before the era of standardized modern breeds, several breeds may have more rarely have contributed to Rhodesian ridgeback genetics. Although there are few currently feral or domesticated dog breeds which feature ridgebacks, there is not much speculation that either the Phu Quoc ridgeback from Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam nor the ''Mah Thai Lang Aan'' or Thai ridgeback, the royal dog of Thailand has contributed to any significant degree, if any, to the KhoiKhoi ridgeback's primary trait ancestry for the dorsal hair pattern in the Rhodesian ridgeback.〔http://www.rrcus.org/club/breedinfo/RRFAQ.htm〕〔http://www.phuquocislandguide.com/phu-quoc-ridgeback-dog/〕〔http://dogbreeds.bulldoginformation.com/thai-ridgeback.html〕 Reverend Charles Helm (1844 - 1915),〔http://saberidge.com/Saberidge/Breed_History.html〕 son of Reverend Daniel Helm of the London Missionary Society, was born in the Cape Colony, joined the London Missionary Society himself, and moved from the Zuurbraak (now Suurbraak) mission station just east of Swellendam (modern Western Cape Province, South Africa) to the Hope Fountain Mission in Matabeleland, Southern Rhodesia, travelling from October 1874 to December 1875, then bringing two ridged dog bitches from somewhere between Kimberley (modern Northern Cape Province, South Africa) and Swellendam with him to Hope Fountain in 1879 en route to becoming, as it would turn out, a political advisor to King Lobengula, house-host to hunter-explorer Frederick Courteney Selous, postmaster of Bulawayo and well-appreciated tooth-extractor.〔http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2011/03/relevance-of-anti-sanctions-campaign-in.html〕〔http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=1257〕 At Hope Fountain, now part of the city of Bulawayo, fellow South African transplant Cornelius van Rooyen (b. 1860, Uitenhage, modern Eastern Cape Province, South Africa), a big–game hunter, was married to Maria Vermaak of Bloemhof by Reverend Helm in 1879 the same year Helm brought his two rough-coated grey-black bitches to the Mission. Van Rooyen saw Helm's pair of bitches and decided to breed his own dogs with them to incorporate their guarding abilities.〔http://rhodesianassociation.com/the-men-who-created-the-rhodesian-ridgeback-dog-we-know-today%E2%80%8F-continued-from-decjan-bundu-times/〕 Maddeningly, we are not sure these two first direct ancestors of Rhodesian ridgebacks had dorsal hair pattern ridges themselves, but they founded the Rhodesian ridgeback bloodline, so either carried the trait or it was added from other Boer dogs and hybrids with Khoikhoi ridgebacks which van Rooyen bred into his lines over many trials then generations.〔 After trying pointers and Airedales, crossing with collies gave van Rooyen the best lion hunters, as his son Cornelius Jr. tells us. Pointers, bulldogs (perhaps boerboels, which were actually mainly larger mastiffs) and greyhounds are generally credited in the European core of this mix, with larger terriers such as Irish terriers and perhaps great Danes.〔http://www.lady-ridgeback.sk/historyengla.htm#breeds〕 Modern Rhodesian ridgeback breeders speak of some of their ridgebacks being too 'mastiffy' though it is uncertain what extent, if any, of actual mastiff heredity may have entered, as from the boerboels and their descendants prevalent in these territories.〔 After initially greyer, rough-coated litters originating from Helm's dogs, van Rooyen's subsequently crossed offspring turned to redder coats, incorporating the KhoiKhoi landrace dog's ridges already carried in Boer dogs within his genomes.〔 They became the foundation stock of a kennel which developed dogs over the next thirty five years with the ability to bay lions:〔Fox (2003): p. 10〕 that is, a pack of 4-6 Rhodesian ridgebacks holds lions at bay while the hunter makes the kill, though an individual Rhodesian ridgeback is no match for an adult lion in a fight.〔(Rhodesian ridgeback specific) Information kit for puppy buyers, Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Victoria, Inc (AU), page 25, available online at oz.dogs.net.au/rrcv/uploads/documents/puppy_info13.doc as of June 21, 2015〕〔 These dogs were used to hunt not only lions but also other game, including wild pigs and baboons, and they can kill a baboon independently of a human hunter's collaboration.〔Fox (2003): p. 11〕 The original breed standard for the Rhodesian Lion Dog was drafted in 1922 by F.R. Barnes on founding the first Ridgeback Club at a the Bulawayo Kennel Club show, then in Southern Rhodesia (now in Zimbabwe),〔http://rrcus.org/club/breedinfo/history.htm〕 and based on that of the Dalmatian. In 1927, Barnes' standard was approved by the South African Kennel Union with the name amended to Rhodesian ridgeback.〔 Outside the subcontinent and internationally, the first Rhodesian ridgebacks in Britain were shown by Mrs. Edward Foljambe in 1928.〔''Times'' (London), 11 October 1928, p. 11; 14 August 1933, p. 16〕 In 1950, Mr. and Mrs. William H. O'Brien of Arizona brought six carefully selected Ridgebacks to the US from South Africa.〔(The history-of-the-breed )〕 He and his wife and Margaret Lowthian of California began the process of getting the breed accepted by the American Kennel Club. Similarly, in 1952, The Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain was founded at Crufts to promote the breed around the United Kingdom to show judges, so a standard for the breed might be recognized.〔http://www.rhodesianridgebacks.org/〕 In 1954 the first Challenge Certificates were awarded to dogs shown as Rhodesian ridgebacks at United Kingdom competitions, toward their subsequent recognition by The Kennel Club of Great Britain,〔 and in 1955 the American Kennel Club recognized the Rhodesian ridgeback breed〔http://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/rhodesian-ridgeback/〕 as a member of the hound group. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rhodesian Ridgeback」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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