In the summer of 1764, a lethal predator began hunting the rural population of the Gévaudan province in south-central France. Over three years, parish registers documented the deaths of 113 victims, primarily women and children. The bodies often displayed severe mutilations, with some reportedly decapitated. The crisis escalated into a media sensation that thwarted thousands of volunteer hunters and royal soldiers. The terror concluded on June 19, 1767, when a local farmer shot a creature on Mount Mouchet, prompting an official autopsy.
Although the French crown publicly declared the threat was a large wolf killed by a royal gun-bearer in 1765, eyewitness accounts consistently described a tawny beast with a black back stripe and a tufted tail. The final 1767 autopsy complicated the official narrative by documenting distinct non-canine features, including a heavy sagittal crest, highly rotational leg joints, and a membranous third eyelid. Rather than addressing these biological contradictions, the monarchy suppressed the findings. The surviving records detail a systematic predator that defies easy anatomical classification.
