Akela (The Jungle Book)

Akela
The Jungle Book character
Akela as depicted on the frontispiece of The Two Jungle Books, published in 1895.
First appearance	"Mowgli's Brothers"
Last appearance	"Red Dog"
Created by	Rudyard Kipling
Information
Species	Wolf
Gender	Male
Relatives	Two parents (deceased)

Akela (Hindi: अकेला / Akelā also called The Lone Wolf or Big Wolf) is a fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's stories, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. He is the leader of the Seeonee pack of Indian wolves and presides over the pack's council meetings. It is at such a meeting that the pack adopts the lost child Mowgli and Akela becomes one of Mowgli's mentors.

Akelā means "single or solitary" in Hindi and Urdu. Kipling also calls him the Lone Wolf:

Kipling portrays Akela with the character of an English gentleman. This is shown by his recurring references to the honour of the pack. He is large and grey and leads the pack by virtue of his strength and .

Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and colour

The leader of a group of the Scouting Organisation, the Cubs, is called Akela after this character. The cubs usually chant in their pack meetings, "Akela, we will do our best".

Nine or ten years after Mowgli's adoption, his enemy Shere Khan the tiger, with the aid of some young wolves he has persuaded to support him, plans to depose Akela so that he will no longer be able to defend Mowgli. A wolf who becomes too old to hunt is traditionally driven out or killed by his pack. Akela is far from decrepit, but the young wolves deliberately drive a young, healthy buck deer toward him, knowing that he will not be able to catch it. When the council meets to depose Akela, Mowgli defends him with a blazing branch and drives Shere Khan and his allies away.