Fly Fishing

Fishing Marksman

Rhodesian Ridgebacks - The Lion Dogs

Cornelius Van Rooyen was a well known hunter who lived in Southern Rhodesia in the late part of the nineteenth century. He was particularly well known for hunting lion and it was this that sparked the need for a special sort of dog. Perhaps it was the way lion stalk their prey that led him to want dogs which warned him of just such an occasion.

My friend lived at Van Rooyen's Rest, a 1000 acre farm on the outskirts of the village of Plumtree. The farm was named after Cornelius Van Rooyen who had settled there after retiring from his very active hunting career, many years earlier. He was a well known lion hunter and it was this aspect of his career that involved him in the breed of dogs which became known as Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Mr. Van Rooyen himself does not seem to have played a part in the perpetuation of the breed - his intention appears to have been confined to breeding dogs to assist him with hunting, not breeding for breeding's sake.

Hunting in the early days of Rhodesia was both a sport and a means of providing food. Dogs were used to track down and harry the prey. Whatever Mr. Van Rooyen's reasons were for hunting lion, both male and female lion make formidable opponents.

A male lion weighs in at around 200 kg and the females at 120 kg. A lion hunting alone stalks its victim slowly and silently, trying not to be seen. (If you do happen to catch its eye, the menace of it's intent can be virtually paralyzing). From a distance of about 30m, it abandons cover, bursts into speed, grabs its prey and throws it to the ground. Death comes by biting the back of the animal's neck or sinking its teeth into its throat to suffocate it. With some large animals, where the neck is high off the ground, lions have been known to start their feast on the hindquarters while the animal is still alive.

It's possible that some of the lions Van Rooyen hunted were man-eaters, in which case the local tribespeople would have welcomed the efforts of an experienced marksman with a trained pack of dogs to rid themselves of these troublesome beasts.

The story goes that Cornelius had visited nearby Hope Fountain Mission, which at that time was in the hands of Rev. Charles Helm who had brought with him, from the Swellendan region of the Cape of South Africa, two dogs of small-to-medium build, brown in colour, smooth-haired with a marked ridge of opposite-lying hair along the spine, from above the shoulder almost to the base of the tail. They were probably derived from a breed owned by the O Khoikhoi people, indigenous to that part of Africa, crossed with a larger, sturdier type imported from Europe.

Cornelius crossed his own hunting dogs with those of the Reverend Helm to establish a type that became known as Van Rooyen's Lion Dogs, large, muscular, intelligent and energetic, retaining the characteristic ridge of hair that later earned them the official title of Rhodesian Ridgebacks. They are often of a tan to dark color with a short coat, do not shed much hair and are practically odor free. They usually only bark if they have a good reason to do so.

The actual way in which the dog was used to hunt lions seems to have been to use them in rotating packs to harass the lion and bring it to bay, when it could be shot at close range.

The breeding program of Rhodesian Ridgebacks still exists in South Africa and in other pockets all over the world though sadly it no longer seems to exist in Zimbabwe (which used to be called Rhodesia).

It is not really a water dog but it is adaptable so should you own a Rhodesian Ridgeback and go anywhere with it on the water, you may be interested in buying a Life Jacket or Flotation Device for it – these days commonly known by the initials PFD. They come in various shapes and sizes and protect it against unforeseen long periods in the water. Of course, it is also important that you yourself take the precaution of wearing one.

Possible choices could be:

Pet Saver Deluxe Dog Life Vest
Marine Technologies Cordura Dog Vest
Riptide PFD for adults
NRS Chinook Fishing PFD

You may like to look at these and other articles at
http://www.theboatingstore.co.cc

Some of the information for this article - the brief history - came from the website murenga dot com.

About the Author

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One Piece Straw Hat Crew Members??

Luffy said that he was going to get 10 members from the beginning, but he only has 9 right now. So, what other member do you think the straw hats need? Maybe the new member might be a fish person from fishman island...or maybe not.
What kind of person do they need next? They already have:
Luffy - Captain
Zoro - Swordsman
Navi - Navigator
Usopp - Marksman
Sanji - Chef
Chopper - Doctor
Robin - Archaeologist
Franky - Shipwright
Brook - Musician

Who else do they need now? A maid....lol jk
I CAN'T THINK OF ANY OTHER POSITIONS SOMEONE CAN TAKE UP...

....and What if the new crew member is a girl????
....or what if the next crew member has a devil fruit ability???
.............

IDK. SOOOOOOOO

WHAT DO YOU THINK????

Vivi was actually un-official member of Straw Hat Crew Crew if you count her in...

http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/216/18-19/

I think it's better to keep the current members now and not adding another member to the crew. At least not yet. I've never had a chance to get to know more about Franky and now they have Brook as the newest crew. I loved both though, but if there's too many I'm afraid it'll distract the attention a bit while reading. There will always be some character be left out once in a while and I don't like that to happen. You'll noticed see in some of the chapter they didn't show many scene about Franky but adding more scene about Brook. On previous chapter when Chopper and Robin appeared the scene of Sanji and Zoro was 'cut off' a bit. Oda will either make Zoro 'sleeping in the ship' and Sanji 'guarding Going Merry (previous ship) while others having an adventure' to show more about new character.

SO, nope... I hope they're not having a new member yet... Remember the Straw Hat Crew was infamous because they only has a small crew and yet very powerful and each person has quite high bounty (except for Chopper XD) for their head. It's a compliment and quite rare for a pirate crew for having a total over 700 million beli (well barely). 700 million beli and 50 beli) to be exact.

Luffy - 300 million

Zoro - 120 million

Robin - 80 million

Sanji - 77 million

Franky - 44 million

Brook - 33 million

Usopp/Sogeking - 30 million

Nami - 16 million

Chopper - 50 beli

http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/435/016-017/

http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Bounties

* Just remember this one, how about Luffy didn't found another crew on the fishman island? How about he met another Shichibukai-Jinbei! Remember Jinbei was once the leader of Arlong! Imagine what it'd be like if Jinbei knows that Luffy beat Arlong? Hmmm.... it'll still be fun if they didn't fight each other (Luffy has been beating every Shichibukai he encounter XD) because at least they revealed how Jinbei look like. Oda really good at building up a storyline if you read the manga carefully (anime didn't really had the detail) because he's been putting hint everywhere in his manga. You just gotta find it and noticed about that just like when you're trying to find Pandaman hidden in the panel of certain pages.

World's First Blind Marksman lands tarpon, sharks and stingrays!