The Beast of Gévaudan

 

The now legendary account of the Beast of Gévaudan is a fascinating tale set in the province of Gévaudan in France. The incident or incidents took place from 1764 to 1767 and described a possible werewolf, a very large wolf or unknown cryptid attacks. The contemporary accounts taken at the time descibe a very large animal or animals with large teeth and tails and wolf or dog like or a wolf/dog hybrid type animal. It had pointed ears and was able to take long strides with a thin face and a broad chest. It was brown in colour with black stripes or streaks on its back and may have had a white heart shap on its stomach. It had a notably longer tail than that of a wolf with a tuft of fur on the end. This has one of the largest deaths associated with an unknown animal attack on humans with estimates ranging from 60 to 500 deaths of men, women and children and 30 to 49 injuries with reportedly many victims partially eaten. The attacks covered some 50 square miles. 

Gévaudan no longer exists and is now located in the area of Lozère which came into effect after the French revolution of 1790. The attacks got the attention of Crown and a large amount of resources and money was spent hunting the beast who would reportedly kill the victims by ripping out their throat. Nobels, soldiers and even royal huntsmen were sent after the beast and many had reported success in besting the beast yet the killings continued. 

I first attacks were recorded in 1764 where a young woman who was looking after some cattle was charged by a beast. Fortunately it is said that the Bulls in the field protected her and managed to drive it off. No long after this event it is thoughg that the beast took it's first victim a young boy of 14 years named Janne Boulet. The attacks continued throughout the year and by the December a terror gripped the region. The beast or beasts modus operandi was to attack lone men, women and children tending to their livestock in and around the forests of Gévaudan it would set upon them mauling their head and neck until they were dead. Reports were numerous and sometimes simultaneous leading some to believe this could be a pair possibly male and female or a female with young. 

At the beginning of 1765 a group of friends were attacked by the animal but by staying in a group they managed to fend it off. All this eventually lead to the court of King Louis XV. After rewarding the boys for fending off the beast he declared that the state would help to find and kill the beast. Captain Duhamel of the Clermont Prince dragoons the leader of the local infantrt was the first of the state attempts to achieve this and despite his best efforts found his guards lacking and the populous uncooperative. Even so at one point it was recorded that he had managed to gather 30,000 volunteers to help track and kill the beast.

After this a wolf hunter with his son was dispatched to take care of the animal. Choosing a more stealthy approach to kill the creature than the wolf hunting parties organised by Duhamel. However after months of hunting the Eurasian wolf that he believed were responsible for the attacks the killings still persistent. This lack of success lead to their replacement in June of 1765 by the Kings Lieutenant of the Hunt François Antoine. By September he had managed to kill a large grey wolf that was some 60kg (132lb) in weight and 1.7m (5'6") long and 80cm (2'6") tall. After the months of searching no other wolf of this size had been seen and so Antoine declared that he believed this must be the beast. Some witnesses also agreed as they could see scares on the animal that they believed were the results of defensive wounds caused by the villagers. The huntsmen stayed to hunt the wolfs mate and pups and successful killed the female and one pup that was described as already bigger than its mother and had a second set of dewclaws which is a hereditary malformation. The second pup was wounded and believed dead although the body was not recovered. Antoine and his son returned home heros and much wealthier for the hunt. 

However in December two boys were attacked by the beast the youngest was 6 and the beast tried to carry it off but the elder boy (12) managed to fight it off. Interestingly this beast showed little fear of the cattle and more attacks followed. This has lead some to believe this was a different beast from the initial attacks and possibly the escaped pup now grown up was hunting. The Royal Court believing that the monster had already been slain however were reluctant to off anymore support so it was left up to the locals to deal It wasn't until June 1767 that a man named Jean Chastel would a local hunter eventually shoot and kill a beast and the attacks stopped for good. 

Interestingly Chestel may have been a superstitious man as the hand made large calibre round with buckshot made out of silver! There apprears to be a belief among at least some of the locals that this was no ordinary wolf. On postmortem the beasts stomach contents were shown to contain parts of its last victim. 

Gévaudan itself was seen as a strange and isolated place where man had not yet amended to tame nature. This type of predisposition to the supernatural will of undoubtedly lead to some of the wilder theories being suggested. Added to this that France as a country was in a bad way having only just come out of the seven years war and many of its overseas territories now lost. The beast gave them something to fight against something to defeat to prove themselves against. On top of this the press at the time needed interesting stories and as political news was censored by the Crown they started looking further afield for interesting and gripping stories and what better story than an unknown wild beast terrorising and killing the helpless County folk of Gévaudan. 

So what was the beast? Mass hysteria most likely played its part in this story with events being over exaggerated. However modern thinking tends towards a pack of wolves being responsible for the killings as this was a problem throughout Europe as the increased population of humans spreading out in the the country and clashing with the established animals in the region, also the expansion of towns and cities forcing animals from the hunting grounds in search of new prey. Another theory is that Jean Chastels' mastiff was responsible for the beast having sired it. The hide of a boar may have been used to protect the dog during hunts and explain how it was able to resist previous attempts to hunt it. It would also explain how Chastel was able to successfully kill it knowing where it would be hunting,  and what it truly was.

Other theories other than that of a large wolf or wolves or other wild dog have been that of a lion! They are known to kill in a similar way but where it came from is unknown and as the animal was examined it seems strange that they still believed it to be a wolf as the features are very different leading us to think thus may not be the most realistic suggestion. Other suggestions were of a stripped long haired hyena or a wolf/dog hybrid and even a man and wolf working together! There are obviously the theories that the creature was indeed a werewolf or other paranormal creature or even as yet unknown large canine cryptid. 

I think here at RTI we would have loved it to have be some unknown large wolf type animal or a prehistoric hanger on but most like a pack or packs of wolves were the real beasts behind the story charged up with local fear and hysteria and help by press looking for a story and a country looking for a monster to beat. 

You can read about it here and here

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