The Wonderful Myths you hear about the Basenji's

[JoT]

@nomrbddgs:

Jo, you can contact Sanda Allen for info on Father Titus who gave a speech at the BCOC Regional specialty re the lion part of this.

Okay. Thank you! Did you mean Sandra or Sanda? Do you have a website for her contact or a kennel name?

[nomrbddgs]

No, it's Sanda. Her kennel name is Africanadian Basenji's. The website is africanadian.net and her email should be on there. It took about 2 min for the page to load, but you can probably see her address there.

[JoT]

@nomrbddgs:

No, it's Sanda. Her kennel name is Africanadian Basenji's. The website is africanadian.net and her email should be on there. It took about 2 min for the page to load, but you can probably see her address there.

Thank you. I found it.

[Sanda Saunders]

Just to make a small but important clarification. Usually Basenjis did not kill the lions. They surounded the lions and the humans did the killing. So the Basenji is not really a lion killer. However Father Titus did hear of stories about packs of Basenjis having killed lions. But it would be very rare. For those who are curious. Father Titus is my parish priest here on Base Petawawa, Ontario, Canada. He was born and raised in the Congo. His grandfather, who hunted with a basenji, was the cheif of a village. This village still does not have power. People still live in huts. He also mentioned that often Basenjis would scare the lions and other predators away from the encampments. Basenji packs would always protect their humans through intimidation. Often scaring lions away!!! This for thousands of years. He also mentioned that the Basenji in Congo is in danger due to a rabies epidemic and some waring tribes using them for food. So the Basenji is not really a lion killer however it is a lion scarer. Absolutely! A pack of Basenjis will take on anything that threatens their humans. Heck yah!!!

[nomrbddgs]

Nice to hear you speak up Sanda! Your memory is much better than mine, but the establishment was quite noisy as well. I heard 'lion' and 'kill' in the same sentence. So technically, when threatened Father Titus did say they would kill a lion if needed.

[Sanda Saunders]

@nomrbddgs:

Nice to hear you speak up Sanda! Your memory is much better than mine, but the establishment was quite noisy as well. I heard 'lion' and 'kill' in the same sentence. So technically, when threatened Father Titus did say they would kill a lion if needed.

Yes we had information overload!!! Yes he did say they could kill a lion as a pack if need be but that is rare. Usually they scare the predators away. It is very hard to beleive that small dogs like that could kill a lion. I will ask him for more info about this topic. Next time he goes to the Congo, he will gather more stories on this topic and share them with us. I will ask him to video interview people. We can all watch it together. It will be so much fun!!!

[nomrbddgs]

Hopefully next Sept at the next Regional you put on? It was really good. And so much info from everyone and a wonderful slide show from Father Titus on Basenji info.

[Sanda Saunders]

@nomrbddgs:

Hopefully next Sept at the next Regional you put on? It was really good. And so much info from everyone and a wonderful slide show from Father Titus on Basenji info.

Yes The BCOC Regional Specialty should be at the same place same time "ish". The last Saturday of August. August 31st 2013
Yes I will try to get part B of the Father Titus presentation. So much we never got to present. I will work on it with him all next spring and summer.
I will make sure to weed out any unimportant info. As too much is not the best. Just keep the most interesting and most relevant. We will have loads of fun too!

[Sanda Saunders]

http://www.basenji.org/african/macd6709.htm
There is a good part on the lion hunting in this article…. sooooooo good!!!!

Interesting part about a possible brindle connection in there too, towards the end.

[Sanda Saunders]

OMG I wonder if the SAFANDO talked about in the article could be this African Wild Dog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_pictus
Go look at the map of where it lives. It does overlap known basenji territories.
What if… what if....
We need John Curby to do a DNA annalysis to see if any possible genetic input could have come from there????
(He is the only guy I know of who would be capable and pehaps interested.)
In the article it mentions people crossing them with local dogs.
Sooo interesting.....
Sanda

[agilebasenji]

Or Aardwolf? but the geography doesn't really work for the Aardwolf (but the tiger stripes do!)