Beast of Gévaudan

""Drawing of the monsters who is laying waste on Gévaudan. This beast has the size of a young bull and prefers to attack women and children. It drinks their blood, severs their heads which it drags away.""

- Translation of the beast's description from the picture

The Beast of Gevaudan was an enigmatic feral animal of undetermined specy which plagued the land of Gévandan during the eighteenth century. Countless theories were made about the nature of the beast, which has yet to be explained and as of today, remains an enigma for both scientists and historians. Its mystery and its gruesome tale inspired many fictions and stories.

The beast terrorized the Gévaudan, a former province of central France which corresponds to the present-day Lauzère and Haute-Loire departments. It is infamous due to its size, its ferocity and the fact that it escaped considerable manpower (ranging from peasant's mobs to experts hunters) for many years, even reappearing a short while after being said to have been killed. The beast was apparently able to travel to large distance of forests and mountains in a matter of hours, and it covered a very large area of action. It was described by eyewitnesses as a huge canine-like animal with reddish body-colour, strong jaws, long tail and awful smell. Some even mention a smaller female individual which accompanied the monster without taking part of the attacks. Yet, the exactness of the testimonies can be debated due to oral tradition. ( With attacks being retold and probably magnified from one person to another.) Not to mention the possible traumatic states of the survivors which could have prevented them from giving a proper description of the event. The most reliable information about the beast mostly stems from investigation reports written by the local clerics and later by the king's soldiers and huntsmen.

It has been established that the beast specifically targetted humans, even when they were cattle and animals around, though it sometimes attacked domestic animals.