Beast of Gévaudan

The Beast of Gévaudan refers to a mysterious wolf-like predator, or possibly a series of predators, blamed for a wave of brutal attacks on men, women, and children in the rugged Gévaudan region of south-central France, now part of Occitanie, during the 1760s. Contemporary accounts described an unusually large animal with a massive chest, reddish or dark fur, a long tail, and a wolf's head but a build reportedly stranger than any known wolf, fueling rumors of a hybrid, an escaped hyena, or supernatural punishment; in 1764 the Bishop of Mende issued a pastoral letter calling it 'a scourge that the wrath of God seems to have raised up to punish our sins.' The attacks, which reportedly killed dozens over about three years, became a national sensation, prompting royal hunters, dragoons, and nobles to organize large-scale hunts, several ending in the killing of oversized wolves paraded as the culprit before attacks continued. The panic subsided after a hunter killed a large wolf in 1767, though historians still debate whether one animal, several wolves, or a trained attack animal was responsible. Modern scholars favor one or more unusually large, possibly rabid wolves, combined with 18th-century myth-making.