Something else to consider is that during wartime the fields of corpses were likely scavenged by wolves in the region. As seen with the man eating lions of Tsavo in the 1890s animals that get accustomed to eating dead humans may start preying on live ones once corpses run out.
semisapien The lions of Tsavo also happened because the railroad was being built. You suddenly have 10,000 workers encamped in the wilderness near lion hunting grounds. Im not that surprised all those people got eaten.
That part about the doubled dewclaws is interesting. There's a breed of dog from central France called the Beauceron that's mostly known for that trait. They up until recently had cropped ears, like some people did and still do with Dobermans and Pit Bulls. There's a breed of Dutch Shepherd that often has a brindled, or striped coat. The number of teeth is what confuses me the most though... that's not something that just anyone would throw into a report. Someone had to have examined it. There is something called Hypodontia, which is a congenital condition wherein an animal has less teeth than it ought to, but that's usually just one or two, not SIX. The inverse, HyPERdontia, is where you have more. So, hyena with extra molars? Might be like wisdom teeth, where it's really uncomfortable, and the animal would go after the softer parts of the body as a result, as well as being more aggressive due to pain.
The beast killed by Jacques Chastel, aka “the real beast”, underwent an autopsy that was carefully recorded (you can access it on the French wikipedia page, which is gloriously complete) The Notary Marin performing the autopsy was unable to clearly identify the animal but did say that it was a canid. To give you a sample the animal was 99cm long (excluding the tail), its back-legs were around 45 cm long, it weighted around 50kg, and it had 42 teeth. There were also reports that said the Beast displayed some behavior pointing to the fact that it was a tamed animal. So it was most likely a wolf/dog hybrid.
SongDog7 I t is interesting that you mention teeth, because teeth in hybrids are often unusual, that is to say, unlike either parent. Having said that , I could believe that it was a tiger that got loose. The tiger would have had an advantage in that the hunters were looking for a wolf or wolf like creature, thus devote energy pursuing wolf sightings, wolf tracks etc. We are all just guessing of course.
@@pseudopetrus That's what I think too, how they described it as having a long thin tail, reddish fur with black stripes, & a bone breaking bite a rich person's escaped tiger pet & no one of that time could comprehend what they were seeing.
@@PerceptionVsReality333 very unlikely it was a tiger (or any big cat for that matter) there is more evidence pointing to one or several canids. There's been several cases of big cats escaping private owners, or people abandoning them. The most well known cases are from Britain, but they never killed people (and not as many as the beast did too), they only attacked livestock. If the beast had in fact been a tiger it would be a unique and isolated case (the only person who would even be able to aquire a big cat in the whole of Gevaudan was Count de Moranges. He was the premiere aristocrat in Gevaudan and people would have been able to tell who the animal belongs to). However having a wild unidentified (but often recognized as a canid), animal attacking people for some time was a thing that happened several times in France alone. Many of the confirmed "wolf" man-eaters in Europe had features suggesting wolf-dog hybridization, identified after they were killed. The Wolves of Périgord and the Wolf of Sarlat, which acted concurrent to the Beast of Gevaudan's depredations in nearby regions at the same time the Beast did, were wolf-dog hybrids. The population of wolves back then was bigger than today and people often came in conflict with them. But if you want to go with the "exotic animal" theory then it's more likely it was an African Wild Dog - the Lycaon. The Lycaon measures up exactly to the autopsy proportions, /would/ have the white patch, makes the bizarre noises the Beast reportedly made, has red eyes as recorded in the autopsy, has four toes without dewclaws, has 42 teeth like a wolf, is known to have a short, compact rib-cage like in the autopsy to enable faster turning, and some have the black stripe on the nape. However the entire ordeal wreaks of human involvement, from the pattern of attacks based on date and location, to the lull in killings during the Chastels' imprisonment, and up to the very death of the Beast itself. This suggests a known animal capable of being trained to kill.The Chastel family were avid dog-trainers and wolf-hunters who had an affinity for the wilds and who lived on the fringes of society. And they were known for keeping big dogs. They even got in a clash with Antoine de Beauterne's men during the course of a hunt, and were subsequently thrown in jail. And you know what happened, then? The killings suddenly stopped, that is up until they were released again...Jean Chastel only took action and killed the Beast when it nearly took the life of his woman. And it took him all of about a week to do what France's best couldn't accomplish in years. The Beast walked right up to him during a hunt, stood there subordinately and he shot it.
That would make sense. After all, the original werewolves were wolf skin murders. Indeed, many warriors in Europe (including the Thracians and Roman Velites) wore wolf hides into battle. I can totally see how an 18th century murderer would follow that ancient trend. That way people can blame the wolves (or hyena or dogs)@Tenntakk
My theory... Weirdo french lord wanted to breed his own attack dog, breeding abnormally large Dogs (mastiffs or wolf hounds) or maybe even turkish sheep dogs with wolf/dog hybrids, then the animals were probably mistreated and some how escaped ... and started tear assing through the french country-side. It would explain the animals lack of fear of humans and aggression which is evident of feral wild dogs and hybrid wolves who've lost their fear of humans.
You're not far off, in fact the autopsy positively identified the animal as a wolf-dog hybrid. But the person most likely behind all this wasn't a French Lord, but Jean Chastel - the same man who shot the "Beast" ending its killing spree. The Chastels are highly culpable suspects in involvement with the Beast. They were avid dog-trainers and wolf-hunters who had an affinity for the wilds and who lived on the fringes of society. They even got in a clash with Antoine de Beauterne's men during the course of a hunt, and were subsequently thrown in jail. And you know what happened, then? The killings suddenly stopped, that is up until they were released again... Jean Chastel only took action and killed the Beast when it nearly took the life of his woman. And it took him all of about a week to do what France's best couldn't accomplish in years. The Beast walked right up to him during a hunt, stood there subordinately and he shot it.
That reminds me there was a movie about this that sets the beast as some rich French Lords hyena, I don't remember the name of the movie but it was heavily based on it and it's theories was actually pretty plausible
@@er.mrinalkantidas6949 that's not a cryptid. actually, siren head was a creation of an artist and became very popular among young people. those who believe in sirenhead are just some afraid kiddos
Maybe the barn owls asked the basking sharks to make them a costume and then they wore the costume and killed people as a way to make peace with them🦉🦈
I dunno, the fact that this animal's features aren't spectacularly over-exaggerated makes me think they were attacked by large wolves with a brownish coat. The events where one girl was mutilated and the other described it as a "beast" before she died would get ANYONE's imagination running lol.
Yeah a pack might simply learnt (wrongly) that humans are easy prey. The fact that the beast targeted mainly children and women coincide with predators seeking smaller prey to attack.
If you look at many of the drawings of new species back then, they were often wrongly drawn with features familiar to the artist and/or the person that reported the species, either due to misremembering or even just outright not knowing what those particular aspects were at all.
I think they actually did a movie about this. I know the premise is very similar in "Brotherhood of the Wolf". Funny enough, the "beast" in that movie was a lion. Outside of the ridiculous cultish nonsense that was thrown in, the concept of a full grown African male lion loose in the French countryside is a fascinating idea.
The most likely explanation is that some users saw a older video and mis identified them as a new vid and that there never was a video released on time. But these are just my thoughts tell me what you think is going on with people reporting to have seen trey's videos released on time down in the comments below
I was listening to this thinking "this sounds like the plot to Brotherhood of the Wolf" and sure enough the movie was based on it. Thanks brain, I should trust you more.
Now I’m not exactly sure if this counts given it’s typically attributed to real animals but if you wanted to do a bit of a different cryptid type thing you could do a video on the “big cats” of the uk which is basically a phenomenon of people reporting seeing big cats, usually black ones, in Britain where there are no native ones. It’s kind of interesting from a cultural perspective as Britain has very little dangerous wild life so what is a fairly normal creature in other countries becomes a thing of terror here. The used to be one allegedly living in my town but I think reports of it have dried up and the stories seems to have pretty much lost traction
I remember reading that it's believed that most of the sightings were just domestic cats viewed from a distance and therefore appearing bigger without anything for scale
@@bibtebo Yep, and that's combined with the rare exotic pet that do seem to pop up. Most of them are just domestic cats, including some very big feral ones.
@@Tareltonlives I did actually see a Scottish wild cat when in Scotland tho, they are basically the same size as a domestic, but wow are they rare, I got so lucky. Just felt the need to share since we are on the topic of cats in the uk
I think Wolf- Mastiff hybrids are good candidates for “wolf-like” creature attack in old Europe. Mastiff-wolves can be very large, aggressive and more likely to associate with and attack humans. Additionally, predators often eat hearts, liver and other nutritious organs first, thus leading to the descriptions given for victims. However, I think a lot of the attacks are either false or exaggerated.
I think the hyena-theory made most sense, but this one wouldn't be impossible. At least some breeds of mastiffs can also be coloured brindle, which means they have stripes and are often dark brown.
The art does resemble a Amphicyonid (bear -dog) or Hemicyonid (dog-bear), but both Caniform groups died out 2 million + years ago. The supposed Waheela, a North American cryptid also resembles an amphicyonid.
ledernierutopiste well, in MANY other cryptid videos he made, the said monster was, for the sea ones, almost always a baskin shark, and for flying one, often a barn owl, that is where this channel’s même was born
Some of the deaths described did strike me as a possible serial killer. Perhaps one who wore a wolf pelt to disguise themself and so if there was a witness in the distance, the witness would think it was a beast. Especially if they attacked during the twilight hours when visibility was low... That plus a possibly roaming hyena and the usual wolf attacks could've easily fed the hysteria of a strange beast.
Catie F I watched a documentary about this cryptid, and it arrived at pretty much that exact conclusion, but took it further. The ACTUAL Beast Of Gevaudan WAS just a man, but he was also a serial killer AND a rapist. He would rape women, murder them, and then use a trained wild animal, like a wolf or hyena, to savage and mangle the bodies and make it look like an animal attack.
Michael Henry So she survived the encounter? Wow, I missed that little bit of information. In that case, he may have been wearing some kind of wolf mask or something to hide his identity.
@@kevinnorwood8782 That calls into question the intelligence of that girl lmao. You're telling me she sees some "beast", the beast pulls his pants down, rapes her, leaves, and she thinks its some animal? Either the raping happened to other victims and not her, or she was not very bright.
@@michaelhenry3234 Good point. Maybe the raping DID happen to the later victims and not her, or maybe it was happening to another victim when the first girl reported the "beast" and all she saw was the strange animal the serial killer/rapist used to clean up the evidence and make it look like an animal attack.
@@kevinnorwood8782 Maybe. Did that documentary provide any solid evidence that it was a rapist? With the frequency of attacks and how spread out they were, I think the far simpler conclusion is that a unique looking wolf killed the first few victims and then every animal attack afterward was mistaken for the beast. Occam's razor, after all.
So, are you planning on continuing the series by chance? It’s easily my favorite series of yours. If you need ideas on cryptids, may I suggest the Black Demon? It’s a supposedly 20-60ft shark, so you’d get the bonus of ripping the megaladon is still alive theory to shreds
The moment you said people disguised as animals. I felt kinda dumb because that’s exactly what I was thinking it could be. Mixed with actual animal attacks. Then a sick individual disguised in a costume attacked children and women.
I mean would it be out of the question for some strange woodsman who lived "off the grid" to be mistaken for a beast? Making his own clothes I'd imagine youd use a vareity of pelts and furs.
Jimmy Jams yeah I was thinking any that saw the man if any dresses up. Were so overwhelmed they truly believed he was the todays equivalent of a werewolf or very large dog creature. But because no equivalent existed they used the best description they could. I do agree most were probably probably exaggerated attacks for a variety of social reasons.
One other feature of the killings is an eerie pattern in time and location. They happened in six distinct zones, the biggest with the most attacks was also the last before the killings stopped. The Chastel family lived in that area, and the animal Jean shot was very close to their house. The kicker is that this is classic serial killer behavior. They often start the spree far away, work back toward their home, and end up doing most of the dirty work in their own neck of the woods. It's been speculated that the Count of Morangies wanted to help destabilize the government with an atmosphere of panic among the common people, and commissioned Jean Chastel and his son to breed a wolfdog and train it to kill. Of course the case is stone cold, and will likely never be concluded beyond reasonable doubt, but the circumstantial evidence is still compelling.
the autopsy report of the animal Chastel killed identified it as a canid. It's also a strange coincidence that the attacks stopped right after he killed the "beast" add to that the fact that Chastel owned mastiff's and a wolfdog hybrid isn't that far fetched
Next Cryptid, Nandi bear! Another killer cryptid that gave me chills when I was a kid. As for the identity of the Beast, I really don't think a striped hyena was the main culprit. If you look at striped hyena attacks, there are very few that weren't sleeping children and also there are no reports of the stench that is synonymous with striped hyena. In fact if you read all of the detailed accounts of purported Beast attacks they share similarities with only one group of predator, the big cats. In particular, tigers. The like the tiger, the Beast was a solitary hunter that stalked it's human prey in forested areas; wolves are primarily pack hunters that run down their prey in open areas. The Beast was described as a huge russet animal with stripes, a long thin tail and sharp claws. Grey wolves have never been recorded with that particular pelage, they have bushy tails and don't use their claws for hunting. The Beast could magically disappear, tigers are known to ascend trees when hunted. There are many records of man eating tigers but only three reports of man eating wolves ( wolves that specifically hunted humans, not wolves that ate people because the opportunity arose.) So my hypothesis is that, back in Gevaudan, a tiger, (habituated to people) somehow escaped from a menagerie or circus and took up eating people and livestock to survive. People who glimpsed it's attacks, having never seen a tiger, would describe it as a huge reddish beast or animal with stripes. It's carrion was sometimes scavenged by wolves, it may have even had a pair of "follower" wolves that shadowed it's movements hoping to get the scraps. (Not needing to expend energy on hunting, these wolves grew bigger than the other local wolves. Plenty of regular food made them massive like the big captive wolves we see today). These were later shot and sent to the royal court. Eventually the tiger died in a lair, a cave or hidden den and it's body was never found. Anyway that's my theory :D
ok but like... tigers don't look like dogs tho( •_•) besides if people we're already captivating exotic animals like the tiger, then surely at least one person in france would've known what a tiger looks like but aye.. that's just my opinion *pew news outro*
Interesting theory, although the descriptions of the Beast as dog-like might not support that. That said, however, several large breeds of dogs have shorter faces: think mastiffs and the like. Not squashed snouts, but considerably less pointed than a wolf or some shepherd dogs. Also, cropping ears was common enough, so people panicking due to an attack or close sighting of the Beast who aren't familiar with the faces of large cats might well describe the creature as a dog of some kind. Large, heavier nuzzle, huge teeth, short(end) ears along with a large, heavy build would make people think more of a large canine a large version of a comparatively dainty domestic cat. Edit: Rather than dying in some obscure cave, it could be it worked its way out of the area due to all of the commotion and hunting going on, not to mention it could have been having trouble creating a territory because of humans and established wolves. If it had managed to find a remote location with decent non-human prey, it could have easily lived its life out with no local humans the wiser.
@1957khartung Least likely theory to be true. Mesonychids were long dead before the events of Gevaudan. The description of hooves being present on the beast rather than claws were probably heavily romanticized.
@@s.winter7455 Very unlikely though... We're talking about France here : Rich pple and all the cultural stuff were moslty located in Paris at that time. That part of France is especially poor and pretty isolated. I really doubt that pple from such a remote area with little money and means of transportation have seen a tiger.
Have you ever heard of the "man eating lions of Tsavo"? These were two lions that for some reason started killing humans in Kenya in the 1890's, and a lot of aspects seem similar. Basically, native animals that would sometimes attack a human changing their behavior and attacking many more humans than usual. The big difference is that the Tsavo lions were killed within a year, not giving them time to attain cryptid status. It could be that something similar happened here, but with two or three wolves. I wonder if there's a way to see if weather conditions were unusually harsh in that part of France during that time period, or if there was any other reason a wolf's normal prey would be scarce?
I remember watching a documentary on those lions, and I think it was stated that the railway workers were first shooting elephants, which enabled more bushes of thorny vegetation to grow. That might have driven away many of the grazers, and the lions may have also coincidentally got their canine teeth broken. This supposedly made it a lot harder for lions to chase down and kill their ordinary prey, so they became man eaters.
@@markcobuzzi826 Maybe for some reason there were fewer deer and such in Gevaudan in the 1760's? If that was the case, it would make sense for a wolf or wolves to start going after human. Incidentally, one of the Tsavo lions was apparently very hard to kill, taking as many as nine bullets before dying; kind of like the "beast" being shot but still escaping.
the autopsy report states it was definitely a canid (but not a wolf) unless the beast Chastel killed wasn't the actual one, in this case I am left wondering why? I mean with the royal disinterest in the case in 1767 what would be the point of not delivering a lion? Who would have faced danger from the beast being a lion and from what authority (from a royal perspective the affair was officially closed)? This seems to complicate things for the pleasure of complicating them (and considering the already dubious context in which the beast was killed I don’t think we need to complicate them anymore). Or the autopsy record lies which leads me to the exact same questions I had before with the addition of why bother writing a report at all?
TheAkwarium I don’t think they are saying it was a lion. They are saying that harsh conditions have caused otherwise regular animals to seek humans as prey. In the case mentioned it was lions, but wolves could easily be put in a similar situation.
The striped Hyena explanation seems rather unlikely. Striped Hyenas are smaller than spotted Hyenas and are naturally fearful of men. They might attack a small child, but attacks on adults are almost unheard of. In addition, I doubt that in the 18th century French countryside it would be forced seek confrontations with Humans due to a lack of prey items. The absolute number of attacks make the explanation even less likely than it already is.
You'd imagine a smaller predator like a hyena, if being forced to hunt for itself instead of scavenging, would rather attack the livestock, than the bigger humans. If the predator was smething bigger it would make more sense for them to go after the bigger prey, because then it'd have no problem taking it down.
@@TheAkwarium I mean rich people always existed, something could have easily broken out of some menagerie or something. This wouldn' have been your average citizen owning something like that.
@@MysterySeeker I think people would have noticed, since if there was one rich person living between them all they'd know. Since people were able to tell that Chastel owned Mastiffs, they'd probably have noticed and recognized who the animal belongs to.
@@TheAkwarium Only if the animal belonged to someone rom that region, and didn't escape somewhere else and found their way to this particular area by coincedence. It's not like whoever lost an exotic dangerous animal would go around telling people he lost it, and end up getting blamed for any potential deaths. If you're rich enough to afford a hyena or whatever, you can just buy another one and not deal with angry crowds of people with pitchforks
Do a video on England's Beast of Blythburgh. I live in the region and it's a still a household name 500 years on. Just a heads up: it's pronounced 'Blithe-bruh'.
@@alvianekka80 now to think about it we are currently in part 8 and no were-anything. About the closest thing i can think of is maybe Weather Report's Heavy Weather, who uses hypnosis to turn people into snails, though it's equally likely that it subliminally makes you go on a strangely specific drug trip, considering how it supposedly works.
Interesting connection you made about how cryptids tend to be seen more during times of societal stress. I'll have to keep in mind to read a bit more about the general socital mood at the time when researching/reading about cryptids in the future. As I've never made that connection before myself. Cryptids as a societal coping mechanism, I feel there's a scientific paper of some sort waiting to be written there haha. Regardless great informative video as usual.
Thank you for covering this story! I’m French and as a child it terrified me. I think the creature was a wolf but I like the stories that appeared after. The region where the event happened are still marked by this event with statues and flags with the beast on it. PS: the fact when it was shot it would often escape is most likely due to poor gun powder quality and damp conditions. The fur may also have helped deflect the shot. I would look at documentaries and articles about it, there’s a lot more to the story.
also the fact that it's easier to say the animal had super powers than to just admit you missed it, considering some of the people were "experts" in wolf hunting
One of the things I have noticed myself is that generally post wars, predatory fauna sometimes develop "man eating" tendencies. Like how tiger attacks allegedly skyrocketed after the Brits conquered India. Thus could be sensationalisation, scavenging behavior on available corpses, taking advantage of non normal prey items, and desperation from the conflict driving out existing food sources. Live stock were reported as being taken more often by tigers during the various wars for India (which were more like several campaigns against existing kingdoms that also had their own conflicts often leaving huge numbers of dead). I think that after 7 years of a particularly brutal war that some wolves in the region developed a taste for human flesh, as well as a return of more livestock also causing a growth explosion of local populations while also noting hat during the war anyone in france capable of firing a gun was usually on the front lines or more focused on combat. Another thing is the man eating lions of Africa, usually only pop up after sustained combat is over. When I went to Afghanistan, we heard that in some parts of the country where the fighting was really bad, striped hyenas and jackals would occasionally take people, and graves would be found dug up and remains strewn about. I do rember hearing about tiger attacks in Vietnam jumping up after the war really kicked off, and remember hearing about bears around gulags in Russia being prone to hunting lone people wandering around in the woods
I remember hearing about this Cryptid when I was little I was at my grandma and grandpa's house on a show called animal-X on animal planet and I am so glad you made video about this Cryptid because I forgot the name of it and I have been trying to find that show and thanks to your video I was able to find it also great job on the video keep it up
I've seen the Brotherhood of the wolf and it is actually a surprisingly good film. I highly recommended it. But if you're looking for suggestions for your next Cryptid video. May I humbly suggest the Jersey Devil.
dan lovejoy I haven’t watched any JD research vidoes myself, but Trey’s format is nothing short of captivating and entertaining whilst still being completely informative, which I’m guessing is probably why the op suggested it in the first place, and why I would really like to see it as well, but for the time being, I guess I’ll look into the JD research myself
@@shin0mega I can see that, and after considering it from that point I would like to see Trey's take on it as well. I was only offering a lesser known creature from the same area.
This _was_ a pretty neat video! The Beast of Gévaudan is a pretty neat story, and I'm glad I got to hear about it (even if it's probably just a hyena). 1:20: The Seven Years' War was fought between a lot of other nations, too. It was the World War of its era. 5:45: I guess that "Mission Accomplished" banner was a bit presumptuous...
Thank you :D I'm happy you enjoyed it! Yeah I was thinking about the phrasing of that sentence while editing, the 7 Years' War was more of a proxy war between tons of different nations with the main two sides being France and GB. and yeah XD I should have gotten that George W Bush picture for that part
He's alright. He just likes being left alone because he's self-conscious about the batwings and hooves and the goathead. But really he's an alright guy. Likes to fuck with the shoebies.
I think a wolf/dog hybrid was what the people saw and were attacked by which later would be known as the Beast of Gévaudan. It's likely that a couple of rogue hyenas that have escaped from captivity were seen and blamed for some of the attacks as the hyenas would've probably attacked a couple of people for food as well as been seen consuming the already deceased bodies of other victims.
@@Spinoguy16 I know, but Gévaudan was hardly a rich region with no nobles, just peasants living there, hence why all the noblemen had to arrive there from Paris and the King also resided in Paris and Versailles.
We have to know during that time who would have kept exotic pets and who would have a bad fence with his dogs. I think more research needs to be done with this subject. What I was saying is that in recent instances when exotic cats got away they only attacked wild stock. The Gevaudan wolves had a taste for people which is rare, why eat bad tasting boney people when there are juicy sheep to attack. Or maybe the deer and other wildlife were overhunted and the wolves had to resort to attacking people? We need to know more facts.
Wonderful video Trey. I remember those werewolf paintings from the History Channel when I was younger, they still terrify me to this day. The ones with red mouths. Wolves are among my absolute favorite animals, yet werewolves are among my most feared monsters.
Long legs, reddish color and a black streak in the back seems like a description of a Maned Wolf from South America Edit: I'm not saying the beast was a Maned Wolf, just pointing out the similarities with the description
@@Santi-ei3qf Europe is fairly close to Africa and a rich person importing a relatively common animal from there isn't too far fetched, but a fairly rare animal from halfway across the world seems a little unrealistic.
This would make a great movie! A cross between a crime investigation, a monster hunt, and a psychological thriller. I know you mentioned a movie at the end. Although I’m gonna check that out, I want to see a modern one
Don't forget the alluded supernatural nature of the beast! Still remember being very scared with the movie (even though I saw it as a kid so that was easy I guess).
been ages since I seen brotherhood of the wolf and had forgot the name of it till seeing this and thinking I think I seen this movie. But was not it a trained tiger in a armored suit in the movie.
@Pecu Alex My personal "hypothesis" (more like imagining as I think it probably doesn't exist) is that it's a large species of monitor lizard, as they can be semi-aquatic and vegetarian. Of course size exaggeration would play a role. I think it's a more likely hypothesis than either a Dinosaur or megafauna hiding in a jungle.
Thank you for this video. I found this very interesting. I also just recently discovered your channel and have been binge watching a lot of your previous videos.
Brotherhood of the beast is actually a pretty good film, but of course it takes a lot of liberties, I don't want to go into spoiler territory, but let's say none of theories you mention are int he film, but at the same time, it's also not really an undiscovered creature. I also like the theory of some serial killer being in the mix. At least I know of a famous case of a serial killer near where I come from that was related to licantropy and Wolf-like attacks. Romasanta. He was a man that around 1850's killed at least 9 people (women and children mostly), although he claimed to have killed more. The killings all involved deep bites and scratches and were abnormally vicious. When he was caught he claimed to have either a curse or an illness that made him turn into a wolf and attack people and that he remembered killing more than 13 people (although the number varied). I always thought that the myth of the werewolf stems in part from cases like that. In fact when there was clear evidence against someone in the werewolf trials (a focus of popular histeria similar to witch trials that happened alongside them), which was very few times point more to human killers than wolf attacks (although we have to be very careful as they were usual popular trials based almost totally on testimonies). and if you know one of the original telling of Little red riding Hood, the antagonsit was not a Wolf, but a werewolf and his actions were more akin to one of of demented killer (making a little girl drink the blood and eat the flesh of his murdered grandmother and then get nude in the bed with him).
Honestly I feel like most sknwaler reports in Cryptozoology circles are interchangeable with werewolf and dog men sightings so a series about werewolf and werewolf-like cryptically overall would be pretty cool!
I'd love to see a discussion of one of my favorite Prehistoric Critters, Early Sharks, Like the Really weird ones with those Dorsal Radar Dish looking things.
Another interesting cryptid I'd very recently heard about were these giant black snakes in excess of 15 feet and thick as a telephone pole that were sighted in northern Japan; I can't remember the specific area. From what little I could find, sightings began before Westerners arrived in Japan and seemed to all stop around the 1960's. No snake that has ever lived in Japan gets anywhere near that big, so I can't even guess what people were actually seeing.
There was a great documentary I saw on this on tv. In the end they suggested the spotted hyena, but more than that. Because some of the survivors claimed having seen a man first and then suddenly being attacked by the beast (which is where the werewolf theory came in), they suggested this was a trained hyena. If I'm remembering the details correctly, the man who killed the hyena with a silver bullet had been excommunicated from his town, and he did have some connection the the managerie in Paris. They did tests with silver bullets, which cannot in fact fly straight, so to kill the beast with a silver bullet between the eyes like the man claimed, he couldn't have stood 50 feet away like he said he did, but rather a direct head shot. This man was obviously praised and welcomed back to his town as a hero, so the documentary suggests that this was a very convoluted revenge plot. I looked online to find that documentary again, but I can't find it. However, it seems that in 2016 it was suggested the beast could have been an immature male lion.
Hyenas can't be trained, but a spotted hyena is a MUCH better fit than a striped one, as they are not only willing but quite capable of killing a human being.
@@Tareltonlives Actually, hyenas are very intelligent and can be trained. Not like a dog, but if someone knew enough about the species, it is possible, though dangerous. I do agree that a spotted hyena would be far more likely fit than striped, as striped are smaller and typically much more timid animals.
It was probably a wolf and maybe someone's striped hyena that broke out. A lot of rich people would have menageries full of exotic animals and this was before we learned that it was probably not the smartest idea to keep an animal in a small cage for long periods of time without anything to do. I'd say it was a striped hyena since they aren't native to Europe.
Joshua Bartlett The people that survived were the people that saw the Striped Hyena (they described the Beast). The people that died were killed by Wolves.
@@joshuabartlett5575 They can get up to 120 pounds and since rich people want the impressive stuff they would want a big one. 120 is more than enough to kill a human especially when you consider how animals are generally stronger than humans due to their center of gravity being lower and therefore harder to throw off. Also a predator would use sneak attacks which would make up for smaller size.
I'm not sure how someone'd have been able to aquire a hyena in such a poor region though and the autopsy report clearly states it was a canid (not a wolf though) most likely a wolf/dog hybrid
Ok made a research and indeed it seems that striped hyenas can get quite large, but mostly don't. Indeed it could be that the hyena was quite a big one and was attacking people! That's fucking interesting mate
Pretty sure at least some of those deaths were murders disguised as monster attacks. The harsh and cold mindset that follows a war, combined with roaming mercenaries and men returning from the front lines, usually creates a rise in crime.
Here's an idea: a murderer takes advantage of a feral hyena. The killings can be blamed on the hyena since it's eating his victims. Same with wolves-the murderer can blame the wolves for his crimes since he can hide while the people find the wolves by the victims.
Great video, beast of Gévaudan is my favourite cryptid. You better start doing christmas special by now, so you can make it in time :D. I think yeti or bigfoot would be interesting topic.
You should definitely watch Brotherhood of the Wolf when you get a chance! -- while it includes a lot of Beast lore, the basic explanation ends up being an interesting variation of the 'social stress' theory, though I don't want to spoil it too far. Also there are some great action scenes.
If one considers the wolf attacks in India in the 1990s, we can see that humans are rarely the best witnesses, even when they locals are familiar with wolves. Attacks on humans, particularly those carried out in the dark and not clearly seen, give rise to tall tales of monsters. There’s something deeply disturbing to humans about being prey.
That's interesting. I agree that under stress, the human being perceives the threat larger than reality. On the other hand, I would've thought that the locals would've easily recognized a wolf. Wolves already had a bad name in Europe and wouldn't have required further extrapolation, no? I'm not familiar with wolf attacks in India in the 1990s. Did those involve cases of misidentification?
The beast of Gevaudan wasn't the worst wolf attack serie in France , the worst was in the XVIIth century with the "beast of Touraine " . And there has been several other. It didn't take exotic animals so I don't think hyenas or unknown monsters are the best hypothesis . As it is said in this video , packs of wolves or dogs is still the most plausible idea
That’s definitely one of my favorite cryptids, btw will you make a video about the montauk monster?I saw people sayings that it was a raccoon,other said it was a pit bull but none of these creatures have a beak
I feel like it was a hybrid of some kind, maybe just an unusually aggressive wolf or hyena, and that it did attack enough to cause hysteria above normal wolf attacks and that probably some sick individual(s) started using it as a cover to murder women. Psychos do that. Then it become like you said, just people hyping attacks to be the beast
@@Tareltonlives I don't find it likely that French farmers in the 1700's would be inclined to breed wolfdogs. More likely, a herding dog got frisky with the enemy; my guess is that in this situation the dog would be the mother, as pups raised in the wild without human contact- wolf or dog- tend to be shy and fearful. Perhaps the pup wasn't trained or socialized, but nevertheless came to associate humans with food.
@@GotPotatoes24 Many of the confirmed "wolf" man-eaters in Europe had features suggesting wolf-dog hybridization, identified after they were killed. The Wolves of Périgord and the Wolf of Sarlat, which acted concurrent to the Beast of Gevaudan's depredations in nearby regions, were wolf-dog hybrids. Natural, 100% wolves tend to shy away from humans. It's the hybrids that stir the pot. Yes, wolf predation and aggression on humans was more intensified in earlier centures, but usually this coincided with times of war, when the wolves would scavenge the battlefields to devour the dead. There was no such time of warfare prior to the events in Gevaudan in the 1770s. The Marin report, that is, the actual autopsy of the Beast, POSITIVELY identified that it was not an ordinary wolf. The autopsy is describing the result of wolf-dog hybridization. It had canine dentition. The lower body resembled a wolf, the front resembled a dog. Its rib cage was different than a wolf's. Its coloring was different than a wolf's. It had a squarish, more box-like head resembling a dog but an elongated snout, reminiscent of a greyhound or, in my opinion, a Charnaigre. A Charnaigre was a European hunting dog around during the time of these events. They were incredibly fast, agile, and could leap astounding distances.They pretty much disappeared around the 19th century. Here is a picture: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Charnaigre.JPG
I have always thought the Beast sounded more like a hyena than anything else.. I was under the impression that it killed for something 30 years not 3.. There are stories of the Lough Ness Monster going back hundreds of years.. The first sighting was connected to St Columba when he first entered Scotland..
it remember something, my grand parent live in bourgogne and they have a big forest and few years ago a weird dog (at least i though it was a dog) showed up in the yard i wasnt able to tell wich race he was and the time i went inside to grab my phone to take a picture my uncle chased him away several year later i watch a documentary on the african fauna and i see the african wolf, and it looked just like the ''dog'' i saw at this moment
