The Chortai, sometimes spelt Chortaj, is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

sighthound Sighthounds, also called gazehounds, are a type of dog, hounds that hunt primarily by sight and speed, rather than by scent and endurance as scent hounds do. Appearance These dogs specialize in pursuing prey, keeping it in sight, and overp ...

from

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

. The Chortai is said to resemble a cross between a

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgenc ...

and a short haired

Borzoi The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound. Etymology The system by which Russians over the ages n ...

, being a quite heavily built running hound but nevertheless displaying typical sighthound features. The Chortai is believed to have been developed from the now extinct Krymstaja and Gorskaja breeds and was a favourite breed of the Russian nobility; one was exhibited at the

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. In 1831 or 1832, ...

in 1829 as a Russian Greyhound although otherwise they have rarely been seen outside their own country. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

remnants from the abandoned kennels of the nobility were widely crossed with local hound varieties producing what is now known as the South Russian Steppe Hound, despite this the breed received recognition from the Soviet authorities at the Cynological Congress in Moscow in 1952. The breed's numbers steadily declined under the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to the point of near extinction, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been renewed interest in pre-revolutionary breeds within Russia and attempts have been made to rescue the breed. The Chortai is typically hunted in the traditional Russian manner, with the hunters mounted on horseback accompanied by a brace of hounds and a raptor.

References

Sighthounds Dog breeds originating in Russia Dog breeds originating in Ukraine {{dog-stub

See also

References