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The Beast of Gevaudan


Esperonza

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I am curious if anyone has any idea as to what that beast was? People say wolf (honeslty I own two and they are way too skiddish) or a hyena (also false) amongst other things. Anyone know anything else?

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This legend my be the result of several unconnected incidences which were woven into a fantastical story.

I don't have access to my info right now, but there's evidence that some attacks were the result of simple wolf attacks, while others may have been associated with a serial killer who used trained dogs to do the killings.

Sorry I can't help much at the moment, but I will look up my info and post it when I get the chance.

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One of the most perplexing cryptozoological mysteries of all time, the Beast of Gévaudan was a cow-sized, wolf-like monster which terrorized the district of Gévaudan (Lozère), France, from 1764 until 1767.

What was the Beast? The French peasants of the area believed it to be some sort of demon, but an English account from about the same time said the Beast was most likely a member of "a new species", which they said was a hybrid of tiger and hyena. Learned men believed it to have been a wolverine, a bear, or even a baboon.

In 1765, King Louis XV himself sent an experienced wolf-hunter named Denneval to Gévaudan to kill the Beast. Before Denneval himself managed to track down the Beast, a man named de la Chaumette saw the Beast near his home, near St.-Chely. He and his two brothers went out to a pasture in hopes of killing the Beast. They shot it twice, but it still didn't die.

In June, 1765, Denneval gave up his hunt. The previous month, King Louis sent out his chief gun-carrier, Antoine de Beauterne. On September 21, he launched a hunt in the Béal Ravine, near Pommier. He shot what he believed was the Beast. It was an extremely large wolf, 6 feet long. De Beauterne's kill was preserved up until this century in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The carcass of De Beauterne's kill was found in the basement of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. It was identified as a wolf, after which time the body was supposedly discarded due to poor condition. It was recently rediscovered by zoologist Franz Jullien, who has identified it as a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), normally native to Africa.

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One of the most perplexing cryptozoological mysteries of all time, the Beast of Gévaudan was a cow-sized, wolf-like monster which terrorized the district of Gévaudan (Lozère), France, from 1764 until 1767.

What was the Beast? The French peasants of the area believed it to be some sort of demon, but an English account from about the same time said the Beast was most likely a member of "a new species", which they said was a hybrid of tiger and hyena. Learned men believed it to have been a wolverine, a bear, or even a baboon.

In 1765, King Louis XV himself sent an experienced wolf-hunter named Denneval to Gévaudan to kill the Beast. Before Denneval himself managed to track down the Beast, a man named de la Chaumette saw the Beast near his home, near St.-Chely. He and his two brothers went out to a pasture in hopes of killing the Beast. They shot it twice, but it still didn't die.

In June, 1765, Denneval gave up his hunt. The previous month, King Louis sent out his chief gun-carrier, Antoine de Beauterne. On September 21, he launched a hunt in the Béal Ravine, near Pommier. He shot what he believed was the Beast. It was an extremely large wolf, 6 feet long. De Beauterne's kill was preserved up until this century in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The carcass of De Beauterne's kill was found in the basement of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. It was identified as a wolf, after which time the body was supposedly discarded due to poor condition. It was recently rediscovered by zoologist Franz Jullien, who has identified it as a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), normally native to Africa.

Source / Pics

thats what ive heared too, but i dont think it was a hyena. it was said to be around the size of a cow and other parts of its physical description and behaviors dont match up with a hyena.

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Most likely just a wolf or wolfdog, maybe an imported hyena as some reports do describe it as being hunched and with a thin tail. Supposedly the "beast" was raised by a few aristocrats (most likely the man that killed the beast in the first place) to kill off some of the more unwanted people.

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It is very hard to even speculate upon because the event was many centuries past, as to if the Mutilations accrued in the 21 first century we would have Animal Forensic and Human Cadaver forensic sciences to help us determine the Creature/ Creatures responsible for the Killings and Mutilations, the Hyena Remains held within the Museum as a sorces of the Cause sounds very plausible, yet the Hyena Carcass and Skull could have been ether planted to appeases and calm the minds of the Populous or the hyena could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and the Real Beast moved on, died of other causes never to be discovered.

Pavot B)

Edited by Pavot
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This story is famous.

It's about that masacer in franc right? No one are really sure what it was, but they presumed they had killed the creature. After that there are no records of what happend more is there? ^_^

*today people still wonder about how the true story might have ended* like some belive as they made the movie "brotherhod of the wolf", other say it was a deamon. No one can really be sure about this storys end, but one thing is true. It is as famous among some people as Jack the ripers true name is. And that is what no one knows. :alien:

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I wonder what it could be then........ It's so crazy how people presume to believe everything out there has been discovered..... yet we still aren't sure what the beast was. A stripped hyena, I heard, is the only one that actually hunts, and was not in that part of the world yet.... I kind of lean towards the wolf hybrid....

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Personally, I think it was a feline. From the drawings and descriptions it sounds more like a big cat than a canine. It was reddish with a lighter underbelly, long tail with a tuft at the end, broad face with round ears. Sounds like a lion. Some reports even describe it as having a mane.

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well hyenas are closer to cats than dogs ebonykrow and they sometimes have manes.

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You'd be surprised, there are other stories of man-eating wolves that date back in the 16th century and even in the medival times. However, I do believe that they are stories exaggerated by men to make the beasts seem more fearsome...

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I think it was probably a hyena, maybe a dire wolf......or it could have been a prehistoric hyena that somehow survived in the forests.

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well hyenas are closer to cats than dogs ebonykrow and they sometimes have manes.

I'm just saying the physical description seems more lion-like than hyena like. Just compare the drawings.

linked-image

http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/art/77...evaudan_in_1764 - But this drawing resembles, possibly, a cheetah...? The body is nothing like a hyenas. Long tail, long slender body.

linked-image Short stocky body, virtually no tail. I just really don't think it was a hyena. :lol:

Jesus, why is it to hard to find a good picture on Google? :[

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Problem with the Beast being a Lion : The people in europe that time knew well how a Lion looks like, and would have Identified him as such. The Lion was well known from Images. Many Kings and Knights used the Portait of a Lion on theyr emblem.

Not known was the Hyena. But one Problem with the Hyena is : A Hyena is never such an agressive Predator.

Edited by Orion Williamson
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Problem with the Beast being a Lion : The people in europe that time knew well how a Lion looks like, and would have Identified him as such. The Lion was well known from Images. Many Kings and Knights used the Portait of a Lion on theyr emblem.

Not known was the Hyena. But one Problem with the Hyena is : A Hyena is never such an agressive Predator.

That's true, but I'm leaning more toward a large cat in general. :lol: A lion was just the first one to come to mind. A leopard or cheetah might work, even, as some describe it as having spots and a light chest (and young cheetahs have a slight mane). Dunno!

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I'm inclined to believe it was a stripped hyena.

It is not impossible it was a large wolf however. The aggressiveness of wolves in Europe and Asia has been well documented for thousands of years. North America on the other hand has few if any reports of man eating wolves.

One thing the pic reminds me of is a Cougar.

Also it reminds me of the European cave lion.

http://lostcreatures.binertia.com/

The European cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea), is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossils and a wide variety of prehistoric art. This subspecies was one of the largest lions. An adult male, which was found in 1985 near Siegsdorf (Germany), had a shoulder height of around 1.2 m and a length of 2.1 m without a tail, which is about the same size as a very big modern lion. This male was even exceeded by other specimens of this subspecies. Therefore this cat may have been around 5-10% bigger than modern lions. It apparently went extinct about 10,000 years ago, during the Würm glaciation, though there are some indications it may have existed as recently as 2,000 years ago, in the Balkans.

linked-image

Edited by DieChecker
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If we want to look among big Cats : The biggest in size Cat is the Tiger. And the Tiger is the only known Predatory Animal to be known to hunt in some cases only Humans. In the Case when he either gets older and not agile enough to hunt wild animals and/or when he gets in love with the taste of human flesh.

Edited by Orion Williamson
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If we want to look among big Cats : The biggest in size Cat is the Tiger. And the Tiger is the only known Predatory Animal to be known to hunt in some cases only Humans. In the Case when he either gets older and not agile enough to hunt wild animals and/or when he gets in love with the taste of human flesh.

Lions, leopards, and pumas are also known to hunt humans. If an animal like this is removed from its natural habitat, as would be the case in this situation, they would be more than willing to hunt a person. Slow, clumsy, a good sized meal. It wouldn't take a lot of encouragement to gt a cat to hunt something like that.

But, these people knew wolves, and the description is not that of a wolf.

though there are some indications it may have existed as recently as 2,000 years ago, in the Balkans.

Now that is interesting.

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Even Scottish wild cats sometimes attack humans and they are about twice the size of a domestic cat max. One attacked a pensioner up north the other day unprovoked.

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....there's evidence that some attacks were the result of simple wolf attacks....

Sorry, but that doesn't quite work. The people of the Gevaudan KNOW their wolves and have for uncounted centuries. They FEED the wolves during harsh winters and even build them windbreaks. How could the one hundred or more survivors of the 1764-1766 attacks have failed to recognize wolves?

Or dogs, for that matter?

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It was an extremely large wolf, 6 feet long. De Beauterne's kill was preserved up until this century in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The carcass of De Beauterne's kill was found in the basement of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. It was identified as a wolf, after which time the body was supposedly discarded due to poor condition. It was recently rediscovered by zoologist Franz Jullien, who has identified it as a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), normally native to Africa.

This leaves me confused. Some previous accounts have suggested that the stuffed Beast was destroyed during the French Revolution of 1789-1795. But other accounts claim that it survived up to 1819 (or so) by which time it had become so moth-eaten that it was discarded. Never before have I heard that it "was preserved up until this century." Up until the past few years cryptoologists regarded the remains as lost to history.

A fairly decent woodcut from circa 1775, showing the Beast displayed in the Paris Museum, does survive.

But how can we be certain that the remains examined by Jullien in recent years are those of the Beast? The Paris Museum of the late 18th Century would likely have had a stuffed hyena on display, irrespective of the Beast.

Edited by OldTimeRadio
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What about a Bear? Sure that people knew how a Bear looks like - But there are exotic forms of strange looking Big Bears that even people today do not immediately recognice as Bears if no one tells them . Here for example :

linked-image

linked-image

But I am inclined to believe : If it was a wild animal, then there was not one but a whole pack of them.

I dont think one single wild animal would have spread that much bloodshed and horror - that sounds irreal like a classic Horror Movie.

And than there were Witnesses who saw the Beast sometimes hunt in a little pack with other Beasts.

Then there is the Theory of one or more human Serial Killer(s) of course.

And the seldom favoured possibility that many of that killings by "the Beast" were not connected at all, but had absolutely different causes.

Edited by Orion Williamson
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