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	    <h1>Dahu (Dahutus montanus)

		    <img src=https://www.azureva-vacances.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/alpes-dahu-legende-pente-montagne.avif>

        <h3>Habitat and distribution</h3>
        <p>
            Strictly montane, the Dahu inhabits the steep grassy slopes and scree of the Alps, with a stronghold across Savoie, the Haute-Savoie, and the Swiss and Italian ranges. It is essentially never found on flat ground, which — conveniently — is why it is so rarely photographed. Being close to Annecy, you're squarely in its supposed core range.
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        <h3>Diet / behavior / social organization</h3>
        <p>
            The Dahu's celebrated feature is that the legs on one flank are shorter than on the other, an adaptation to grazing while always circling the mountain in a single direction. A laevogyrous individual can therefore never reverse course without toppling, which is the whole basis of the traditional "chasse au dahu": the hunter positions themselves downhill, a companion startles the animal from behind, and the Dahu — unable to turn on the slope — loses its footing and rolls obligingly into the waiting sack. That two subspecies exist circling in opposite directions is also said to make courtship geometrically tricky, which folklorists cite to explain the animal's persistent rarity.
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        <h3>What makes this animal awesome</h3>
        <p>
I love that the Dahu is a piece of folklore engineered as a practical joke: an entire fake natural history built to send credulous newcomers out on a cold night holding a bag. It's a small, self-aware monument to Alpine humour — and a surprisingly elegant lesson in why a claim that explains its own unfalsifiability should make you suspicious.
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