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50 free Rhodesian Ridgeback trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback is the lion dog of southern Africa, a wheaten hound with a stripe of hair that grows the wrong way down its back. Its story runs from the ridged hunting dogs of the Khoikhoi through the big-game hunter Cornelius van Rooyen at Hope Fountain Mission to F. R. Barnes, who wrote the standard in Bulawayo in 1922 and borrowed the Dalmatian's as his template. These 50 questions cover the breed from every angle: the history of colonists, missionaries and lion hunts; the standard's rules on coat, nose and eye colour; the ridge itself, its crowns and the 2007 discovery of its gene; the ridged cousins in Thailand and Vietnam; temperament; the health issues of dermoid sinus, hypothyroidism and bloat; and the breed's arrival in Britain and America. Easy questions ask where it came from and what it hunted; the expert tier wants the names of Helm's two bitches, the extinct Cuban breed in its ancestry and the gene behind degenerative myelopathy. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a dog-club quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which part of the world was the Rhodesian Ridgeback originally bred?
Southern Africa
Its forebears were the ridged hunting dogs of the Khoikhoi, crossed with European breeds by Cape colonists.
Q 02What is the breed's most distinctive physical feature?
A ridge of hair growing backwards
The ridge is formed by two whorls of hair called crowns and tapers toward the hips.
Q 03What is modern-day Rhodesia, where the breed standard was written, called?
Zimbabwe
The standard was drafted in Bulawayo in 1922.
Q 04Which big animal were Ridgebacks famously bred to hunt by baying?
Lions
They harassed the lion with quick darting snaps rather than attacking it outright, until the hunter shot it.
Q 05What does a Ridgeback do when it "bays" a lion?
Harasses it with darting snaps
The dogs were also used to hunt boar and clear farms of wild pigs and baboons.
Q 06Which indigenous people's ridged dogs are the breed's forebears?
Khoikhoi
Europeans were using the Khoikhoi dogs themselves within 53 years of the first Dutch settlements.
Q 07Who drafted the original breed standard in 1922?
F. R. Barnes
Barnes founded the first Rhodesian Ridgeback Club at a Bulawayo Kennel Club show.
Q 08The 1922 breed standard was modelled on which other breed's standard?
Dalmatian
Barnes borrowed the Dalmatian standard as his template.
Q 09Which body approved the 1922 standard in 1927?
South African Kennel Union
Britain's Kennel Club and the AKC did not recognise the breed until the 1950s.
Q 10Which big-game hunter developed the breed's foundation stock at Hope Fountain Mission?
Cornelius van Rooyen
He bred dogs for 35 years; his rule was that a good dog was one that survived.
Q 11Which missionary brought two ridged bitches to Hope Fountain in 1879?
Charles Helm
Helm was also a political adviser to King Lobengula and Bulawayo's postmaster.
Q 12What were the names of the two dogs Helm brought to his mission?
Lorna and Powder
Van Rooyen found them brave around lions but too slow and poor-nosed, so he crossed them with European breeds.
Q 13Hope Fountain Mission is now part of which city?
Bulawayo
The first Rhodesian Ridgeback Club was also founded at a Bulawayo show in 1922.
Q 21In which year did the American Kennel Club recognise the breed?
1955
It was placed in the hound group.
Q 22In which AKC group is the Rhodesian Ridgeback placed?
Hound
Despite its guarding history, the AKC classes it as a hound.
Q 23Where was the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain founded in 1952?
Crufts
Its aim was to get show judges to recognise a standard for the breed.
Q 24What are the two whorls of hair that form the ridge called?
Q 14The hunter's foundation stock bred at Hope Fountain was once known by what name?
Van Rooyen's lion dogs
He died in Bulawayo in 1915 of malaria, pneumonia and heart failure.
Q 15Which extinct fighting breed was heavily used in the early Ridgeback's makeup?
Dogo Cubano
The Cuban Bloodhound was used for dogfighting and guarding.
Q 16Genetic analysis places the Ridgeback in the same clade as which breed?
Great Dane
That implies the Dane made the major European contribution to the breed.
Q 17What percentage of pre-colonial ancestry does the southern African Ridgeback retain?
4%
The rest came from imported European dogs such as Greyhounds, Mastiffs, Great Danes and Bloodhounds.
Q 18What were the Boer hunting dogs that preceded the Ridgeback called in Afrikaans?
Boerhond
The word simply means Boer hound.
Q 19Who first showed Rhodesian Ridgebacks in Britain, in 1928?
Mrs. Edward Foljambe
The breed's British club was not founded until 1952, at Crufts.
Q 20How many Ridgebacks did the O'Briens of Arizona bring to the US from South Africa in 1950?
Six
They worked with Margaret Lowthian of California to win AKC recognition.
Crowns
The fan-like ridge tapers from behind the shoulders down to the hips.
Q 25Roughly how wide is the ridge at its widest point?
2 inches
It is believed to derive from a similar ridge on the original African dogs.
Q 26About how much does a male Ridgeback weigh under the FCI standard?
45 kg
Males stand 26 to 29 inches at the withers; females are smaller at about 38 kg.
Q 27What colour range does the breed standard call for in the coat?
Light wheaten to red wheaten
Excessive white or black hairs are faults, though a dark mask is allowed.
Q 28Which two nose colours are permitted in the breed?
Black or liver
Eyes should match: dark with a black nose, amber with a liver one.
Q 29What eye colour should a Ridgeback with a brown nose have?
Amber
The brown nose comes from a recessive gene and is less common than black.
Q 30Where on the body is a little white acceptable under the standard?
Chest and toes
Anywhere else, or too much of it, is a fault.