The Beast of Gévaudan

Between July 1764 and June 1767 in Gévaudan, south-central France, "a pair of extremely large and peculiarly colored man-eating wolves, responsible for the death of sixty to one hundred people, caused great terror in the community" (Sidky 223).

Many who believed the killings to be the work of a single creature--an infernal werewolf--named it the "Beast of Gévaudan." Professional wolf-hunters and teams of dogs were brought in, along with several detachments of dragoons, to stalk the fiendish animal, while the authorities posted huge bounties. At one point nearly 20,000 men from seventy-three parishes joined the hunt; and as a consequence more than a thousand wolves were slaughtered, although the "Beast" was not among them. The elusive creatures remained at large and continued their destructive habits, until the male of the pair was finally killed on Spetember 21, 1766, and the female some nine months later (Sidky 223).

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The Beast of Gévaudan copyrighted 1998 to Shantell Powell.