Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology
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The adjulé or adjule, also called the kelb-el-khela ("bushdog") in Mauritania and tarhsît for the female, is a cryptid canid reported from the Sahara Desert, especially in Mauritania, described simply as "like a wolf".[1] The most recent sighting occured in 1992, when some hunters on the west coast of northern Mauritania noticed a group of unknown wolf-like animals hunting.[2] When Carl Marshall travelled to Morocco's Atlas Mountains in 2009, he was told by local Berbers that small packs of adjulés were still infrequently seen.[3]

Since they first came to light,[4] sightings of the adjulé have often been believed to refer to vagrant African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), which are not currently known from the Sahara. George Eberhart writes that, earlier in the 20th Century, there may have been enough gazelles in sub-desert areas of the Sahara for scattered packs of wild dogs to survive.[1]

Similar cryptids[]

  • The Saharan wolf, reported from the Hoggar Mountains in southern Algeria, and other regions of the central Sahara.
  • The wucharia, a long-eared wolf-like animal reported from Eritrea and Egypt.

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
  2. Nieznane wilki Afryki - Adjulé, Wilk saharyjski, Mlularuka - KryptoZoo - Portal Kryptozoologiczny
  3. Marshall, Carl "A Short Field Guide to Lesser Known Mystery Animals in Cryptozoology A - C," Animals & Men 66/7 (November 2018)
  4. Monod, Theodore "Sur la presence du Sahara du Lycaon pictus (Temm.) (Resultats scientifiques de la Mission Saharienne Augieras-Draper)", Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 53 (1928)
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