It appeared in 1858 as a title for and text within a parody sermon "Where the lion roareth and the wang-doodle mourneth," published in Samuel Putnam Avery's The Harp of a Thousand Strings: Or, Laughter for a Lifetime.
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica listed this definition in the Poker article: In children's literature by British authors Roald Dahl and Julie Andrews, a whangdoodle is portrayed as dismayed and discontent, or a creature of sorrow.
It is introduced to the protagonists Ben, Tom, and Lindy, and thus to the reader, by the geneticist 'Professor Savant', a scholar of the Whangdoodle and its secret domain.
With Prock persuaded to grant their passage, the children discover that the Whangdoodle is oppressed by want of a mate, and convince Savant to create the latter.
Some versions of the song "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" include a mention of a Whangdoodle singing in the titular hobo's paradise.