Canis lupus hominis

The Basenji comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a “primitive” dog, meaning it has certain characteristics in common with wild canids that other breeds and strains of domestic dog lack. Among these are its single estrus cycle per year, erect ears, and yodeling howls.

However, one characteristic has long puzzled scientists. The basenji does not bark. It uses whines and yodels to communicate, and it can bark, usually in the form wild dog’s low, single woofs. However, most basenjis never bark.

Why it doesn’t bark has been subject to some speculation. It has been suggested that the Basenji is such a primitive dog that it was developed for barking. It is an ancient breed. And, lots of primitive dogs are not barkers, but the basenji is the only one from Africa. All other African dog populations bark, including those that really look like basenjis in other parts of Africa. The isolation of the basenji in the Congo allowed this barkless variety to exist for centuries.

Another theory is that the basenji’s barklessness is actually the result of leopard predation. Leopards really like dog meat. In this theory, the basenji’s ancestor was a barker, but the leopards began picking off the barking dogs until only the silent ones remained.

I think this theory has a bit of merit, but I’ll add a little of my own theory to it. Leopards eat lots of other dogs in Africa, but these dogs have the more typical twice a year estus cycle. They have the ability to repopulate much more quickly than the basenji does if the leopards kill too many of them. The basenji’s truncated breeding period puts much more emphasis on predator evasion rather than producing lots of puppies to maintain the population. Thus, it’s the single estrus cycle and predation by leopards that made the Basenji barkless.

I should mention here that it’s a myth that all domestic and feral domestic dogs (other than New Guinea singing dogs, Carolina dogs, Dingoes, and basenjis) come into season twice a year. I had a golden that had an estrus cycle once every 8 to 10 months, which does not add up to twice a year. It was not a seasonal season, of course.