beast of Gevaudan – Lee Duigon

This is one of those mysteries that never will be solved–unless the French decide to let searchers dig up the gardens at Versailles. Because that’s where the Beast of Gevaudan is buried.

The Bloody Mystery of ‘The Beast of Gevaudan’

From 1764 through 1767, in a rural district of France, “the Beast of Gevaudan,” whatever it was, attacked some 200 people, killing 90 of them. The government sent thousands of professional hunters to bag it, all to no avail. A local man finally shot it, bringing the Beast’s reign of terror to an end.

They called it a wolf, but there’s reason to doubt that identification. I have nothing convincing to offer in its place, though.

All we can say for sure is that this was one of the all-time greatest cryptid stories.

See the source image

An out-of-place and drastically overgrown thylacine? Naah–couldn’t be!

Things like this just don’t happen today. They are preserved in history.

During 1764 through 1767, a rural region in France was terrorized by a wild animal called “the beast of Gevaudan.” Incredibly, it attacked some 200 people, with 90 fatalities. Survivors described it as an extra-large wolf; but some contemporary illustrators drew it with a long, stiff tail unlike any wolf’s. Besides, wolves hunt in packs; the Beast hunted alone.

The royal government sent special hunters to kill it, there were at one time an estimated 10,000 hunters tracking it–and finally a local man shot it dead.