Beast of Gevaudan

Today an area of France called Lozère Department part of the modern Occitannia region was most full of horrors centuries ago. Back then it was the Gevaudan region. And Gevaudan was infamous for a monstrous series of animal attacks on humans by the Beast of Gevaudan. Villages of the Margeride Mountains were a hunting ground for the dangerous predator. This took place between the years 1764 and 1767, where hundreds of people were attacked. Some survived with injuries while many were unfortunate. Roughly it has always been believed that 600 people were killed but a 1980's study estimated about 113 deaths. 

One of the first victims was a young peasant girl named Marie Jeanne Valet who was worried about her agitated herd of cattle. Coming from the woods she noticed a large animal that resembled a big wolf. It jumped on her until bulls charged at the beast and sent it away. She was rescued by her own cattle, although the beast went onto kill another victim soon after. A shepherdess named Jeanne Boulet was out in the field tending to her flock when she encountered the terrible beast. What was left of her was horrific. From then on, a string of attacks happened by the same creature, and the victims were mostly  women and children. It attacked men on their own and seeming vulnerable. 

Among the tragic victims of the beast, were many survivors, A number of heroes took on the ferocious man-eater and these included hunters as well as children, such as led by 10 year old Jacques Portefaix. He used wit and determination to defend his friends and family, then rewarded by King Louis XV for his bravery. There is another girl named Jeanne-Marie Valet who managed to fight off the beast using a large stick and now today there is a statue of her fighting the Beast. Have a look at it here on Atlas Obscura. 

The survivors could remember it "like a wolf but not a wolf." The Beast was described as grey-red colour with a black stripe along its spine. It had a long tail with dark tuft at its end. Some say it was a lion instead of a wolf, but the face was wolflike with long nose. Others theorise it was a striped hyena but those are smaller and rarely attack people with such ferocity as this. Others theorised it could be supernatural like a dogman or a werewolf. 

After the Beast was hunted and killed the horrors didn't just finish. More attacks continued by similar Beasts, thought to be offspring of the original Beast. Eventually these were all killed by hunters and the nightmare ended. So now this has become part of legend in France.  

My own conclusion: The Beast of Gevaudan was a Canis Lupus Maximus. This is a subspecies of wolf much larger than the common grey wolf. Fossils of it were found in Jaurens cave in Southern France (close to Gevaudan).

She Wolf Night