Biology:Adjule

The Adjule, also known as Kelb-el-khela, is a canine said to inhabit North Africa, particularly the areas in and around the Sahara Desert in Mauritania. Reported primarily by the nomadic Tuaregs, and Théodore Monod in 1928, the adjule is said to be a totally unknown canine that resembles a dog or wolf, but today is described as an isolated population of the African wild dog. Some alternative names are kelb el khela ("bush dog") for the male and tarhsît for the female. However, despite a continuing firm belief the existence of the canine has since been debunked and its sightings attributed to wild canines mistaken for the adjule, such as the African wild dog which is now extinct in certain areas of the Sahara. There is one unconfirmed sighting of a canid-like animal from the coastal area of Mauritania in 1992; hunters living in the coastal areas of the Western Sahara, to the north of Mauritania, described an animal resembling a wild dog, which hunted in packs. However, this sighting was not confirmed as having been of the Lycaon pictus species (IUCN/CSG, 1997).

References

• Théodore Monod, "Sur la présence du Sahara du Lycaon pictus (Temm.) (Résultats scientifiques de la Mission Saharienne Augiéras-Draper)," Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 53 (1928): 262–264.
• Woodroffe, R., Ginsberg, J.R. and Macdonald, D.W. (1997) The African wild dog: status survey and conservation action plan - IUCN Canid Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.