I'm surprise this thread is still alive after 3 years, but then again this topic has been one the most interesting cryptozoology topics in many circles. I remember going through one of the articles, and there was an account of the beast of gevaudan, it was mention that the beast was about the size of a an adult cow. Now I been to the zoo before, and seen adult wolves, no way in hell is a adult wolves going to be the size of an adult cow, no matter how many people it eats.Either the account was exaggerated or Whatever this thing was, was no wolf, or mix wolf. The best theory, I still believe would be that the beast was maybe a tiger or lion that probably escaped from its handlers and turned wild. As similarly portrayed in the movie.

Not sure if you guys are familar with the case of hogzilla, but wild boars are known to grow as large as a ton ( in hogzilla case). Maybe this tiger or lion or whatever it was escape from its handlers, turned wild and basically just fed of the population. When your the biggest predator in that terrain, there isn't too much to worry about when it comes to food sources.

[edit on 8-3-2009 by Nemox42]

I have posted the photo's under Beast of Gevaudan and Eden, if you have any interest in "la bete" the beast of Gevaudan you need to see these two pictures together. This animal carved on stone in the gates of Eden is most probably a rendition of the Beast (Satan) that attacked Seth and Eve at the gate of Eden as they were pleading for oil from the "tree of life" to ease the suffering of a dying Adam.

Originally posted by debris765nju
I have posted the photo's under Beast of Gevaudan and Eden, if you have any interest in "la bete" the beast of Gevaudan you need to see these two pictures together. This animal carved on stone in the gates of Eden is most probably a rendition of the Beast (Satan) that attacked Seth and Eve at the gate of Eden as they were pleading for oil from the "tree of life" to ease the suffering of a dying Adam.

Dude that is a trip. so you think le bete might have been some sort of devil wolf? or demon wolf? It would explain why it had a taste for human. Frankly, an animal that huge and mean, could easily attack livestock instead of children and women. Yet it did. The only other incident I can think of where a beast grew taste for human flesh was that story of those man eating lions that happen in africa, they also made it into a movie. The ghost and darkness with that val kilmer dude.

Most of the insightful links don't work and this story it seems is a bit watered down version of the Beast of Gevaudan.

It came to me in a more detailed version from an old non English paranormal magazine which had many other kind of literature sited concerning this story. I cannot find the article to scan it since I don't have the magazine still in my possession. Been roughly more than 15 years since. Although we may find the complete story from an original article perhaps from a French book or magazine as I assume the story I read was quoted from.
This is the main reason I searched for this thread, in hope someone else has more information about it.

First of all the King Louis XV would not mobilize the army after an over sized wolf and the hunters team was a part of an army detachment send to this region. It probably functioned as a more specialized unit for this kind of threat.
It was rumored that the beast was only 1. it might have operated either alone or in packs mostly with other disfigured animals belonging to the wolf family.
The most frightening part of its appearance was not its size neither its ability to walk on two legs if desired as the rumors stated in the extended story I have read, neither the determination to attack its pray while they were inside their houses, neither to stalk and terrorize its its pray looking through their windows but it had a distinctive human appeal in its face. Especially the eyes which the creature was said could be able to freeze its victims with fear. Isolated stories about werewolves existed, but this specific creature was attributed for many attacks and by the way of its nature wasn't categorized as a werewolf but as something that had the general form of an animal but behaved with human intelligence and at times stalked its pray like a human would.

That was the reason as the story puts it that the population was greatly upset, the King mobilized the army for several months each time and reward was given along with warning posters issued, like the creature was behaving like a human criminal which in most cases it did.
Although the twist of the story that the King awarded a team of survivors that got attacked in the wilderness and not in a house, maybe because both his initial intentions was to downplay the event of the creature bizarre-nes but also because it was the first group of people that straightforwardly got attacked and that had displayed the ability to come out of this encounter alive.
The attacks went on for a long time until rumors for it attacking houses along with the other bizarre details of its behavior had spread and the King had to do something about it.

After that the beast vanished with no trace along with the other bizarre-ness that accompanied with it and the hunt for enormous sized wolves became a fashion.

That's what the story said more or less.

[edit on 6-9-2009 by spacebot]

The Hyena is an interesting theory but it doesn’t account for the sheer size of this thing. It was reported to be from the size of a cow, and according to at least one report, to a donkey. It was also said to have run on two legs on occasion, just as comfortably as it ran on four.

Lions can get pretty big but not the size of a donkey and neither hyenas or lions can run on two legs.

Bears fit some of the desriptions eg ability to run on both two legs and four and the size but you'd expect the townsfolk to be able to identify a bear straight away. The same goes for a lion. Of course, human beings have been known to misidentify otherwise familiar things as something more exotic, especially when consumed by panic, so we can't totally rule out this possibility I guess.

The Thylacine does have a large jaw but the body is way too small.

I think Mesonychid is one fascinating theory as some of it’s features do sound similar. I believe that we could be dealing with some type of as yet unidentified prehistoric animal that's managed to survive in very small numbers in areas largely unspoiled by civilisation. Hence the rarity of sightings before and after the Gavaudan ones.

The thing that really interests me is the beast’s apparent intelligence. Witnesses describe it as having a cunning unlike any other animal, an awareness and elusiveness that seemed almost human. Perhaps these descriptions are merely the embellishments of a community gripped with hysteria and fear, but one has to ask how it was able to elude capture for at least 4 years, even after the King had sent his best hunters after it for several months. Lets not forget how the story ends either, it was reported to stand, stare and wait for Jean Chastel to finish his prayers before he shot and killed it, almost as if to say “Here I am Jean, whenever you're ready“.

[edit on 28-3-2010 by Beast Of Gevaudan]

sorry to bump an old thread but this was such a good thread to read!

I'd never heard of this story before and i guess i'll have to read up on it more! For the time being I have to come down on the side of a Wolfhound trained as a fighting dog, my parents have had several Wolfhounds one of which (Hardy) was huge! We also had donkeys in our field and Hardy was a good 5 inches taller than the donkeys. My parents also had a Wolfhound (Darcy) that was excessively aggressive and as a pup started to attack people for no good reason and sadly had to be put to sleep so they certainly can have aggressive traits. I can imagine a scenario where a Wolfhound has been trained as a fighting dog and for one reason or another was attacking people. Wolfhounds can have a stiped effect to their fur (brindle) and also often have white chests.

Nice thread s&f

Hy Guys!

I'm new to this site. But after what happend to me two days ago i had to register. I was walking home from work at 20:00 ( its winter here in Hungary and it gets dark pretty early) . As i was walking i saw a huge dog like creature i dont know like 40-50 meters ahead of me. I thought nothing of it but it started running towards me then as i braced myself for the impact i closed my eyes and when i opend them that thing was gone... I dont get freightend easily but man that was some creepie #.. Any of you guys have an idea what that was???
P.S. sorry if my english was not perfect its not my native language

I believe people that believe they are a werewolf actually become a werewolf, at least in their own minds. The sub conscious they say is very powerful. Some people think they can’t move their arm and their arm doesn’t move even if there is no medical reason for it. It’s in their heads. Also why do crazy people look crazy? I think their appearance is determined by their minds. We can tell when someone is distraught, upset or confused by looking at them. Well if they have a disorder like lycanthropy, they believe they turn into a wolf, then they will take on physical characteristics of a wolf.
In the case of Gevaudan I think that’s what happened.