Steve asks:

Question

What biological advantage does a Rhodesian Ridge Back gain from having hair on it's back grow the wrong way?

Answer

It confuses the lions. Rhodesian Ridge Backs, also called Rhodies, not to be confused with Roadies, for you musician types, were bred and used to hunt lions. The hair growing the wrong way -- the nap faces forward, not backward -- makes lions think the dog is running away, when in fact it's not. It's attacking the lion.

It also looks vaguely like a sword. There is an unproven and unattributed theory that lions have a racial (special (that is species-ial)?) memory of fighting Romans, armed with swords, in the coliseum. I think that's unlikely. To be true, the lions would have had to escaped the coliseum, returned to Africa, and contributed to the gene pool.

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