>wolf-like creature
So it was a wolf...

>>5116754
it was probably a wolf, the french are a superstitious, cowardly lot, thats how a giraffe became the questing beast, and the crocodile became the tarasque

dog with mange

>>5116754
Hyena from some rich tards personal zoo

>>5116754
Hyena or Subadult lion
Pre revolution french nobility were really fucked in the head

>>5116754
It was just a man in a gorilla costume

>>5116754
It was probably a wolf that maybe killed a couple kids and was exaggerated into a monster by superstitious peasants

It was absolutely an example of a phantom animal. The "escape from a rich person's zoo" doesn't sound plausible because all descriptions of the creature involve some phrase like "nobody could figure out what the fuck it was". The Medieval world was not ignorant, they'd have noted some defining trait of the creature which they would themselves use to identify it, and no mention was made of unusual vocalizations that would make Hyena a likely explanation.
>>5116763
>giraffe became the questing beast, and the crocodile became the tarasque
Neither of these are true. Sometimes mythological creatures are just mythological. With the Beast of Gevudan, there was an actual corpse that was examined.

>>5116754
Hyena escaped from a menagerie or a young lion

>>5116754
Escaped spotted Hyena eating livestock, mixed with wolf attacks, and a serial killer.

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>>5116754
From the descriptions I always thought it would be a South American Maned Wolf or a subspecies of it.
It's always been interesting because the documented accounts of the beast openly state it was not at all much like a wolf and that it looked strange. I never bought into the Hyena thing either because there's no written statements anywhere about the beast "laughing" and that would have been a pretty significant thing to document about it if it did.

>>5116833
Not all hyenas laugh. Just the jolly ones.
Ar maned wolves aggressive? I never thought that they were.

>>5116836
They've been around for a while so they could have been much more aggressive then and those were the ones that were all culled by people while the timid and docile ones stayed alive and kept mating.

>>5116839
Nah. Their behaviour simply doesn't match at all. They behave more like foxes than true wolves. Besides the fact that they only hunt small animals and morning even close to human size, they eat a fucktonne of wolfapples. They're the majority of their diet. Hard to believe The Beast would eat apples of any kind and I don't think wolf apples exist outside of South American savannahs and scrublands.

>>5116842
>morning
I meant "nothing". Fuckin' autocorrect

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>>5116754
The neck always screamed Hyena to me but the tail always throws that off for me I honestly don't know what the fuck the Beast of Gevudan was.

>>5116852
Melanistic leopard
>known voluntary maneaters
>right size
>right coloration

>>5116754
>red fur, dark stripes, long tail
Isn't that pretty likely a tiger? Tigers also are known to become prolific maneaters sometimes

>>5116754
The last dire wolf.

>>5116836
>Ar maned wolves aggressive? I never thought that they were
Not in the slightest

>>5116852
All these artworks were made by people going off the same vague descriptions we have access to. The sculptors/painters never saw it
>>5116911
Way too small to be a tiger. It was supposedly 130 pounds and a tiger cub isn’t going to be very successful as a man eater

Watch the movie Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf). It reveals a theory about it in the ending. Not going to spoil it.

>>5116754
I suspect the death toll was greatly exaggerated to add to the legend

>>5116815
it is, because the description of the questing beast is how you would describe a giraffe by comparing it to other animals
>body of a leopard, feet of a deer, tail of a lion, and head and neck of a snake
its similar to how kirin are described, every time someone talks about some weird animal with spots and deer feet is usually going to be a giraffe, because a giraffe is a really strange creature
and its very easy to draw the connection between a tarasque and a crocodile
>a dragon, half animal, half fish, thicker than an ox, longer than horse, with sword-like teeth
its very common for giant river/water monster to be a crocodile, because theyre dangerous and made going to waterholes dangerous, and they didnt have access to the oceans to see whales or sharks

>>5116929
>and appeared to be the size of a calf or cow and seemed to fly or bound across fields towards its victims
Sounds very tigerlike to me

>>5116948
>>a dragon, half animal, half fish, thicker than an ox, longer than horse, with sword-like teeth
Sounds like a hippopotamus to me.

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>>5116754
>I just learned about the 'Beast of Gevudan" last night
Have you watched the movie yet? It's excellent.

>>5116932
>>5116977
Always looking for a good kino so thanks for the recs