Tragedy: The Disastrous Campaign of a Deported ‘Beast’

In the 1760s, in the former County of Gévaudan, located in southern France, and in adjacent areas, about one hundred children, youths, and women were killed by an alien “beast”; numerous other humans survived the attacks, many of them seriously injured. The series of attacks is confirmed by a great variety of historical documents and is not called into question by scientists. The “beast” showed an unusual behaviour, extremely threatening for the rural communities of Gévaudan: it ambushed humans not only on pastures and in fields, but even entered villages to prey on inhabitants in front of their houses. The appearance of the “beast” also had economically dramatic consequences for the already impoverished region: trade nearly came to a standstill, fields were no longer tilled. Historians dealing with the events conclude that wolves or a hybrid of a domestic dog and a wolf caused the attacks. But this view is not consistent with reports of the attacked persons and of those who rushed to help them or pursued the “beast”. Furthermore, the wolf hypothesis is not compatible with zoological facts. This book traces the story of the “beast” and its victims; it deals extensively with the identity of the “beast”, and proves that in Gévaudan a manmade catastrophe occurred.