The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, boasting 3.6 million square miles of varied, extremely harsh terrain. Here, little water or vegetation can be found, but life persists; hyenas, rodents, snakes, antelope, and insects thrive here, as well as an elusive canine known as the adjule. In 1928, French naturalist and Sahara Desert expert Théodore Monod was on a research expedition in Mauritania. There the Tuareg, a semi-nomadic people, told him stories of a strange beast, the adjule. The dogs had thick, reddish hide that had a blue tint in direct sunlight, webbed toes with sharp claws, and stood about two and a half feet tall, weighing about 45 pounds, and always could be found in a pack. Females, or tarhsits, sometimes could be seen roaming the barren plateaus in groups of 3 to five, hunting far away from human settlements. Groups comprised of tarhsits and kelb-el-khela (males), have been spotted in movements of up to thirteen dogs, boldly scouting locations regularly accompanied by human presence. Adjules survive on small prey, such as desert dwelling reptiles and jerboa, or larger meals like camel and unlucky travelers. However, some say the canines are more dangerous than the fangs and claws they bare. Folktales state that the adjules have an obscure power- they can produce an unscented pheromone that causes discord in human prey, making them easy targets. Other stories say they aren’t corporal beings at all, but malicious, evil demonic beings that take on the form of a reddish dog or wolf with mange. Today, the adjule has not been reportedly seen since 1992. Most people believe the creature was a misidentification of an African Wild Dog- which is extinct in many areas of the Sahara-, or even an undocumented, isolated subspecies of African Wild Dog. Some believe the century of sightings can be attributed to wild and domesticated dogs with mange. Yet, there are those out there that refute all these ideas, claiming that the adjule once existed, and may still, harboring intense survival mechanisms, stealth, and perhaps, otherworldly secrets.
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AuthorKristen Puckett Archives
August 2018
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