Have anyone heard about Gévaudan beast? It's one of my fav cryptids. I'm gonna post some links later.
But what could it be? I have some theories:
1: Mutated wolf or dog
2: Very large stray dog
3: Undiscovered species of canid
4: Maybe even an alien big cat

I think theories 1 and 2 are the probable ones. Curiously there has been numerous attacks of animals similar to "giant wolves" before and after Gévaudan Beast's attacks.
What do you think about this cryptid?

Do you have a picture? I don't know much about this one.

When I googled this "beast" and saw this pic I almost laughed-up a lung...



Looks like an overgrown Chow-Chow to me.

haha, yeah i know wat u mean.
seems more like an old legend though to me, especially because there doesnt seem to be any recent pics of it. just these old ones

http://www.cryptozoology.com/gallery/conte...an_62362213.jpg

It was supposedly a wolf-hound raised to kill wolves, and then its maniacal owner turned it on people.

Interesting story........It seems that the only thing that it's good for now is making me crap my pants laughing.

The Beast is no cryptid, just a wolf-hound...Dogs bred to kill wolves.

Well that was interesting while it lasted.

Watch Brotherhood of the Wolf. It's pretty much centralized around the Beast of Gevaudan...and martial arts! It has everything.

And one of the heroes is the Chairman's nephew from Iron Chef America.

that was a good movie.

I've researched this case before, the wolfhound was only one of many theories. The Beast was responsible for hundreds of recorded attacks for a three year period, then its body was put on display after it was killed. You don't really believe that half the population of France could not identify a wolfhound, or even a wolf. The reports I have read describe it as a bipedal, almost bigfoot like creature with pointed ears like a canine. One report has it standing outside a window looking in, it was reported to have an evil smell, and resist bullets. It is repeatedly reported that it grabbed its victims with its hands or "claws," very uncanine-like (I think I made that last word up.) The reason there are no pictures is because the Beast of Le Gevaudan was shot dead with a silver bullet in 1767 by Jean Chastel.
The story is well documented and the identity of the creature is still unknown and never will be, the notion of a mere wolfhound is laughable, on viewing the evidence

The film was Le Pact Des Loups. Yes, it's a good one, Mark Dacascos played the native American. As for me, is it possible that the Beast of Gevaudan might be a normal modern day animal? The European 16th century is filled with exagerrated stories. My guess was that the animal is not Native to Europe, perhaps to Asia or Africa, or maybe even American. What if it's actually the Giant Panda? Great chance that people will exagerate the story by adding tidbits and eventually it got bigger. i'm not saying it's a Panda...it can be any animal that alien to 16th century rural France.

Animal X, a show on animal planet, once did something with this. The main possibilities they explored were

1. Wolfdog
2. Big cat
3. A hyena

According to some descriptions they found of the beast it should have resembled more of a hyena. And by the way, arent hyenas in the feline family? That would make them big cats. So, yeah.

The story may sound a bit laughable and exagarated sometimes, but all we know is that this animal REALLY EXISTED!
The bidedal version reminds of a baboon (baboons are known for being angry). Maybe it was a hyena o maybe even a bear walking on 2 legs. The first report says the creature was bear-like. Anyway at least 3 specimens were killed and other attacks of giant wolfs through Europe just makes the story more interesting. I think the last giant wolf attacks ocurred in Russia in 1948.

But the russian ones werent the gevaudan beast.
Yes, many were killed by this horrible beast, the baboon theory sounds good as well but Ill stick with hyena.

why the owner turned it to kill people ? maybe the dog itself turned to man-hound

I've read quite a lot about this case and I'm going with striped Hyena.

A good book to read is "Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV: The Beast of the Gevaudan" by Richard H Thompson. Although it is rather expensive. My university library had it - it's worth a read.

Schnaff

You know, a striped hyena is actually quite small, too small to be the case here is my guess. I'd go for some type of bear.

OK, here are the 5 best theories (in no particular order):

1-Giant wolf
2-Big cat
3-Hyena
4-Bear
5-Giant baboon

the creature was a wolf-hound hybrid
reports of the creature say it had a clump of fur at the end of its tail like a lion but it was a canine and i heared tha wolf-dog hybrids have a clumpy end on their tails

Oh! I just remembered that the tv show I saw on animal x said something about the guy who finally killed the beast once and for all! You see, they think that perhaps, just perhaps, HE raised the killer animal so that when he finally killed it he would be revered!! He could have released it, then called it back. Going on and on until...BOOM!! He gets the glory and a statue in his honer.

The wolf-hound hybrid is a possibility as well.

I think they were either a giant wolf or a giant baboon.

You truely ruin the fun of everything crypto-related.

thats all he can do

LOL that looks like one of those reasoning exercises were they give you 5 words and ask you to circle the one that looks out of place. In this case is number 5, sir!

It's odd, I once did a report for my French class on the Beast of Gevaudan, and what's funny is that I'd never seen anything mentioning a bipedal animal. (I assume any such reports may have been fabricated by werewolf enthusiests) However, it is no fabrication thta it was indeed a silver bullet that finally ended it's life. (At least according to the sources I found)
The description I noted (the ones that all seemed the same, i.e. descriptions of the exact same animal rather than various large wolves) Were as follows:
Large as a young calve or horse.
Redish borwn fur with a "mane" of longer dark brown to almost black hair down it's back.
Large teeth and claws
Bad temper.

This deffinately suggests either a hyena, or wolf / dog hybrid (a few of which I've seen personally and they are QUITE a bit larger than normal dogs)

So my vote is wither for a Hyena that one way or another found itself transplanted in the French countryside or a hybrid, leaning slightly more towards a Hyena due to the beast's reported tenacity and durability.

Yup, no wonder it attacked people.

Funny, I watched Brotherhood of the Wofl a few days ago... which brings me to this...
There's a big hunting store in my hometown, and it's frequented by a few locals who have done alot of big game hunting.
I brought this up to one of them today (a friend of my father's) told him the story, the description, it's behavior, etc.
He concluded (quote) "Without a doubt, that's an African lion" (un-quote)

When he said this I remembered the true story behind the movie "The Ghost in the Darkness" about, get this: Two man-eating lions who in the course of a a few months attacked and killed a few hundred people.
Just as the Gevaudan beast, the lions were reputed to be almost supernaturally invunerable (They were eventually shot and killed. Their bodies are on display at the Feild Museum in Chicago IL)

I may be changing my opinion here... or at least adding on a third contender

Erm... sure...

A lion seems plausible I suppose, kind of a long walk but it could have been imported seeing as how the wealthy in those days often kept exotic pets.

I got my descriptions from the Werewolf Book, it repeatedly refers to the beast as bipedal and having hands. Judging by your reports I would assume that. . .
A baboon or hyena are much too small.
A wolf is much to common, easily recognizable, as is a dog.
An unknown species. Where did it go?
The lone hunter aspect makes me thing feline, as does the mane and reddish fur.
People might argue that a lion would die in a temperate mountainous climate when in fact lions were found in Eastern and central Europe until the sixth or seventh century. I'm not saying that it was a native lion only showing that lions are fully capable of flourishing in Europe

I won't go out on a limb and say what I think it "might" have been....not enough information...but as far as it being killed by a silver bullet, I don't see what possible relevance that "fact" may have...after all...what animal does anyone know of that wouldn't die if shot in a vital area, whether it be by a silver bullet...or a lead bullet. I believe the whole "silver bullet" aspect of the story was(if it was actually factual) "played-up" a bit in an attempt to make "The Beast" seem "supernatural", and in turn, the story more interesting and dynamic.....IMO.

Seems conveinient that the info regarding the beast having more anthropomorphic charasteristics comes from a book about werewolves! XD And I'm not saying your niformation is WRONG, I just haven't seen it before...
Yes, like I said earlier, it was ironic that the final, fatal wound be inflicted by a silver bullet. This may not be a case of the supernatural, but it certainly has it's own elements...

Some cryptozoologists speculate that the Beast Of Gevaudan was in fact a surviving Mesonychid which went extinct in the early Oligocene period (about 23million years before now) and or a Creodanta which was extinct in the early Neogene period, both being indigenous to the Europe/Eurasia area, how they survived would be a mystery to me though. Their is also speculation that it was a cross breed between a dog and a wolf, and was trained to attack people by its owner.

I don't have a problem with THAT theory.

I don't think that any cryptid must be considered as a surviving prehistoric animal. Some of them can be rationally sorted and even figured out with our today's knowledge providing great information of the past, where most of the people aren't very familiar with Lions on daily basis, especially in Europe.