What is a Basenji?

The Unique

Congo
Basin Native
Dog
by Dr. Jo Thompson

lthough the title leads with

the question What is a
Basenji, for this article I
have chosen to steer away from using the
term Basenji to label the native Congo
Basin dog because that serves only to
distract and confuse people who get hung
up on something that is no more than a
Westernized word. Yet, the information
presented responds directly to this
question.

To begin, lets step back and expand
our understanding of natural selection
pressures/processes and the isolation
mechanisms/barriers that have regulated,
and more importantly obstructed, gene
flow over the past 2,000 years (not
including the most recent 200 years) on
the African continent. These powerful
selection pressures include ethnicity
(tribalism), culture, language, geography,
technology, logistics, history, environment,
etc. Broadly, this is the science of
phylogeography; the study of processes
that result in geographic distribution of
distinct life forms.

Lets consider the geographic location
of different biomes. A biome is simply any
major ecological community of organisms,
both plant and animal. Biomes are defined
in terms of the entire biotic community of
living organisms and their interrelationships with their immediate
environment. The map presented here
illustrates the most distinct biomes on the
African continent relevant to this topic.
These biomes have a direct and significant
impact on the resident biotic assemblage
and the human lifestyles (including how
dogs are routinely employed) that adapted

to each region.

The polygons represent some of the
most obvious regional biomes on the
continent:
MD = desert south of the
Mediterranean ;
DG = Dahomey Gap ;
EF = Equatorial old-growth
primary Forest ;
RV = east of the Rift Valley ;
SA = Southern African countries.

All aboriginal (earliest known)
domestic dogs have a very similar basic
physical appearance. This primitive
canid body shape is known as the
long-term pariah morphotype
(LTPM). The LTPM silhouette is
characterized by a wolf or fox-like
appearance, with sharp-pointed, erect
ears, a long, pointed muzzle and a long,
sickle-shaped tail. This is the
generalized form that is at the root of
the domestic canine ancestry. Some
people call this the null type because
it is also the profile (outline) that
modern canines revert back to when
generations are left under the influence
of natural processes breeding without
human selection.

Before humans intervened, the earliest
dog ancestor diverged into populations of
separate types based on natural selection
(including the mechanisms identified

above) and their success functioning in

each biome. As these first domestic dogs
migrated with humans, the primitive
canine morphotype branched out across
global landscapes and new, locally distinct
types developed. Under the unique
pressures of different environments, the
distinct types stabilized as separate natural
breeds.

Over the past few thousand years,
each geographically specific variety of dog
(with a distinctive common gene pool,
uniformity of type/ appearance, and
consistent function) evolved from the
basic, original LTPM form into a
recognizable, geographic type. These
divergent populations formed discrete
breeds specific to their biome of origin.

Often I read comments referring to
dogs around the world that are basenjilike in that they have a common general
primitive silhouette. What we are actually
observing is the LTPM origin. It can be
seen in all the primitive, aboriginal breeds:
Australian Dingo, Congo Basin Basenji,
New Guinea Singing Dog, Malaysian
Dog, etc. But, basenji-like is not
necessarily a Basenji.

Given this background of breeds
specific to their biome, we can identify a
unique type (breed) that will be called
EFb (i.e., Equatorial old-growth primary
Forest breed) because it originated in the

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EF biome that corresponds to the Congo Basin. The EFb, as with

the other aboriginal breeds, began with a primitive canid body
shape thousands of years ago. Over the thousands of years since
the LTPM was introduced into the EF biome, its form evolved
into the distinct breed type recognized by early Westerners as the
Congo Terrier and later called Basenji (= EFb).

The distinctive environmental pressures within the Congo
Basin have created an assemblage of faunal types found nowhere
else in the world, including most notably the Bonobo, Okapi,
Congo Peacock, Aquatic Genet, and Congo Clawless Otter.

Concealed within the EFb population across their biome of
origin we find the full breed complement of genes; the EFb
genome. Some individuals have some genes and not others but
together they have all the genes that make up the distinctive
genetics of the EFb population. It is that EFb genome at the
population level that holds the maximum degree of genetic
diversity.

Taking one evolutionary step backwards, the domestic dog
started from the wolf-dog common ancestor and consisted of the
most diverse genome. As the global wolf-dog population split
into wolfs and dogs, those that became dogs (the LTPM) had less
diversity in their genome but added diversity through mutations,
etc. As the LTPM established in various biomes, each discrete
population diverged from the LTPM into distinct types adapted to
their regional environment. Each of those types was genetically
less diverse than the LTPM common ancestor but also gained
new and different genes through the processes of evolution.
Today we have different breeds (each consistent in type and
with a distinctive population genome).

Now we can see how a dog from the very heart of the EF
biome would potentially contribute new genes to our Basenji
outside the Congo Basin by restoring genes that are otherwise
found within the original EFb population genome.

Thus, the preservation of this beloved breed remains in our
hands. As stewards, we must uphold the unique design of this
breed, distinguished as the original primitive breed developed by
the forces at play in the Congo Basin.
Dr. Jo Thompson, Executive Director of the Lukuru Wildlife Research
Project, is a renowned wildlife biologist who has lived and worked in
the most remote regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
for the past 20 years. Primarily she has been working to protect a
unique great ape, the bonobo (Pan Paniscus) and other species of
high conservation concern. In addition, working broadly across
Africa, through her research she has been celebrated as a leader in
field-based conservation biology, population biogeography, central
African natural history, and the implications of population genetics.
Continuing to work as one of only a very few conservationist who
remained throughout a ten year war in the DRC, Dr. Thompson
organized a pioneering effort to support conservation work in the
DRC throughout the worst years of the war, led a one-of-its-kind
mission of top Congolese conservationists to meet with Security
Council member state ambassadors at the United Nations, worked
tirelessly for biodiversity conservation in central Africa, pioneered a
human-needs approach to conservation through her intimate
knowledge of the most primitive people, and continued field activities
under the most challenging conditions. These contributions
distinguished her as an internationally acclaimed real-world
science-based conservationist.
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