The Beast of Gevaudan

The Beast is one of those mysteries for which many people have many explanations but no one is sure of what/who it was. All we know is that the attacks of La Bête are estimated in 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths, mostly women and children, and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten. The beast was consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable huge teeth and immense tails. The fur had a reddish tinge with a black stripe on the back, and was said to have a foul odour.

La Bête killed its victims by tearing at their throats with its teeth, sometimes severing the victims heads and leaving them without clothes on.The beast seemed to target humans over farm animals, many times attacking someone while cattle were in the same field (wolves are known to avoid direct confrontantion with humans unless threatened).





While the video implies that it could be a wolf dog hybrid, some other people believed it could be a werewolf, a foreign animal like an hyena or a lion with an armour on, a very large wolf or possibly more than one hunting and killing in pack.

Not questioning any of the above possibilities, even the werewolf one, i was wondering if the attacks could have been perpetrated by a supposedly extinct pack of dire wolves. Dire wolves lived in the age of the Pleistocene, living from 1.80 to 10,000 years ago.

Could a family of dire wolves and/or their descendants survived from the Pleistocene era till 1764? It is said that some pre historic fauna survived till this day and age: Nessie, Mokele Mbembe,some reports on pterosaurs, thunderbirds, the Coelacanth are some examples.

Also the werewolf hypothesis makes me wonder, specially when in the above video it is said that La Bête was killed by blessed silver bullets by a noble frenchman.

Thing is no one really knows, that's why the beast is one of my favourite cryptozoological mysteries.La Bête is not a myth. It is not a Urban Legend. It is not fictional or folklore. La Bete was 100% real and there are countless documents to prove that in the mid 18th century, there walked a beast larger than any man, that proved to be as smart, and sometimes smarter than the greatest hunters of its day

There was a film made about this, it was French. I don't mean that it's a documentary, they just use the basic framework of the story in the movie.

Here's a link to info about it Brotherhood of the Wolf

Regardless, it's a fascinating story. S&F

Originally posted by Picollo30

The Beast is one of those mysteries for which many people have many explanations but no one is sure of what/who it was. All we know is that the attacks of La Bête are estimated in 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths, mostly women and children, and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten. The beast was consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable huge teeth and immense tails. The fur had a reddish tinge with a black stripe on the back, and was said to have a foul odour.

La Bête killed its victims by tearing at their throats with its teeth, sometimes severing the victims heads and leaving them without clothes on.The beast seemed to target humans over farm animals, many times attacking someone while cattle were in the same field (wolves are known to avoid direct confrontantion with humans unless threatened).





While the video implies that it could be a wolf dog hybrid, some other people believed it could be a werewolf, a foreign animal like an hyena or a lion with an armour on, a very large wolf or possibly more than one hunting and killing in pack.

Not questioning any of the above possibilities, even the werewolf one, i was wondering if the attacks could have been perpetrated by a supposedly extinct pack of dire wolves. Dire wolves lived in the age of the Pleistocene, living from 1.80 to 10,000 years ago.

Could a family of dire wolves and/or their descendants survived from the Pleistocene era till 1764? It is said that some pre historic fauna survived till this day and age: Nessie, Mokele Mbembe,some reports on pterosaurs, thunderbirds, the Coelacanth are some examples.

Also the werewolf hypothesis makes me wonder, specially when in the above video it is said that La Bête was killed by blessed silver bullets by a noble frenchman.

Thing is no one really knows, that's why the beast is one of my favourite cryptozoological mysteries.La Bête is not a myth. It is not a Urban Legend. It is not fictional or folklore. La Bete was 100% real and there are countless documents to prove that in the mid 18th century, there walked a beast larger than any man, that proved to be as smart, and sometimes smarter than the greatest hunters of its day

edit on 27-12-2012 by Picollo30 because: (no reason given)

edit on 27-12-2012 by Picollo30 because: (no reason given)

Nothing but a tiger or a liger...

Originally posted by Andromerius

Originally posted by Picollo30

The Beast is one of those mysteries for which many people have many explanations but no one is sure of what/who it was. All we know is that the attacks of La Bête are estimated in 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths, mostly women and children, and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten. The beast was consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable huge teeth and immense tails. The fur had a reddish tinge with a black stripe on the back, and was said to have a foul odour.

La Bête killed its victims by tearing at their throats with its teeth, sometimes severing the victims heads and leaving them without clothes on.The beast seemed to target humans over farm animals, many times attacking someone while cattle were in the same field (wolves are known to avoid direct confrontantion with humans unless threatened).





While the video implies that it could be a wolf dog hybrid, some other people believed it could be a werewolf, a foreign animal like an hyena or a lion with an armour on, a very large wolf or possibly more than one hunting and killing in pack.

Not questioning any of the above possibilities, even the werewolf one, i was wondering if the attacks could have been perpetrated by a supposedly extinct pack of dire wolves. Dire wolves lived in the age of the Pleistocene, living from 1.80 to 10,000 years ago.

Could a family of dire wolves and/or their descendants survived from the Pleistocene era till 1764? It is said that some pre historic fauna survived till this day and age: Nessie, Mokele Mbembe,some reports on pterosaurs, thunderbirds, the Coelacanth are some examples.

Also the werewolf hypothesis makes me wonder, specially when in the above video it is said that La Bête was killed by blessed silver bullets by a noble frenchman.

Thing is no one really knows, that's why the beast is one of my favourite cryptozoological mysteries.La Bête is not a myth. It is not a Urban Legend. It is not fictional or folklore. La Bete was 100% real and there are countless documents to prove that in the mid 18th century, there walked a beast larger than any man, that proved to be as smart, and sometimes smarter than the greatest hunters of its day

edit on 27-12-2012 by Picollo30 because: (no reason given)

edit on 27-12-2012 by Picollo30 because: (no reason given)

Nothing but a tiger or a liger...

could be but the descriptions given by both witnesses and hunters don't fit the tiger explanation. The tiger's fur is not thick enough to sustain 2 shots from a short distance and surviving. This creature was reported being as big as a large calf or young cow, it was covered with red fur,the head was big and wolf-like, and more brown than the rest of the body, the jaws always gaping, the ears were short and straight, the chest white and very broad, the tail very long and thick, the tip white, the back paws very big and long, according to some having hooves like a horse, those of the front were shorter and covered with a long fur, having six claws to each paw.

Once when the creature was sighted crossing a river, it raised itself on its hind legs and waded over like a human being.could a tiger do that? i'm more inclined to a real crypto here, maybe a dire wolf or a mesonychid. i know the movie portrays the beast as a lion or a tiger with some sort of armour, but the movie is not historically accurate, it's just fiction.

It's easy to say that French peasants would never have seen a lion or a tiger, but they would have known what Lions or Tigers were. Lions and Tigers had reached Rome, remember, and they figured in some Biblical stories, medieval heraldry and coins. Everybody knew about Lions, and even if you'd never seen a lion before, you would stand a pretty good chance of recognising it as a giant cat. Of all the witness accounts, the Beast was never described in those terms.

Actually that kind of does sound like a tiger. Google golden tabby tigers.

That was very interesting.

A Tiger?!...what's next?...A Chinese lantern
Seriously people, you guys saying that never viewed all the video for sure!

Thank you for posting this Theme friend, and the video is beautifully done also, nice choise

IMHO i strogly believe it was a Werewolf!

reply to post by Picollo30

Hi,

Yes, I did a thread about this very subject earlier this year. Here's the link:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Fascinating subject...

They confirmed the Beast was a hyena. They have the Beast remains at Washington Natural Museum.

Originally posted by Frocharocha
They confirmed the Beast was a hyena. They have the Beast remains at Washington Natural Museum.

Would a hyena be capable of surviving repeated shots from a musket and then still have enough strength remaining to escape? Do hyenas have the habit of rearing up on their hind? Also do they sever their victims heads and rip their hearts out? Just curious

Originally posted by Picollo30

Originally posted by Frocharocha
They confirmed the Beast was a hyena. They have the Beast remains at Washington Natural Museum.

Would a hyena be capable of surviving repeated shots from a musket and then still have enough strength remaining to escape? Do hyenas have the habit of rearing up on their hind? Also do they sever their victims heads and rip their hearts out? Just curious

Musquet weren't that powerfull compared to modern day rifles. It took several shoots to bring animals down due to the weapons innacurate. That's why they used thousand man shooting at once in wars. And yep, Hyenas love to destroy the prey body parts. Even if it wan't a hyena, the decay of the perosn body coudl easily start in less than a day. Fly's and bacteria are know to consume decayed body's pretty quickly.

In the documentary, it's said that many of the Beast history's are fake. Otherwise, there would be reports of strange wolf like animal today. The animal was in fact a personal Hyena brought by a men. Himself weared animal skin made clothes and murdered the people. Then ordered the Hyena to atack them.

Hey, guys! Nice forum. ОК, on the topic:
Some time ago, while doing research for a book, I stumbled upon an interesting description of the Beast:
The Beast is four-legged, with size of horse of cow. According to various witnesses its appearance resembles that of a bear, hyena, wolf and panther together. It has a long, wolf-like snout and large teeth.The ears are small and round.The neck is long and strong, and the tail resembles that of a leopard, but it is so strong that the creature uses it as a weapon. Several people, hit by its tail, argue that it is an extremely strong.The feet of the beast are the most difficult to describe - Most witnesses say it has hooves on his feet or something like hooves.
If in these stories have at least a little truth, the Beast can not be a wolf or hyena.
But this description gives a new suspect - recently extinct group of animals known as mesonychids. The largest of these supposedly extinct before thousands of years ago beasts resembles a hyena and was the size of a horse. But the most characteristic feature of these ancient predators was that they did not have claws but ... hooves (at the time mammals with hooves were the most common group of animals and occupied almost all ecological niches). This is a very interesting theory, especially because connects Beast with another mysterious creature - Tapire-iauara from Amazon jungles.