Giant Wolves? (Canis falconeri, Canis dirus)
Fans of the television series Game of Thrones, based on the series of novels by George R. R. Martin, wonder if the Beast could have been a dire wolf.
Fossils of Falconer’s Dire Wolf, Canis falconeri, an Old World species that may be related to a dire wolf ancestor, has been found in Spain and in the Arno river valley of the Italian peninsula. With its large head and robust body, this prehistoric wolf species is a favorite contender for the Beast. Its dental (tooth) development suggests hyena-like habits, and its hyper-carnivore daily meal requirement (more than 70 percent flesh) could exceed forty kilograms, about eighty-eight pounds. Like the bear-dog, it had a European distribution. Fossils have been found in Spain and Italy, among other countries. But it became extinct approximately eight hundred thousand years ago.
Canus dirus was a beefier relative of Canis lupus, and probably lived alongside its cousin, but only in the New World, about ten to twelve thousand years ago. About 20 percent larger than its gray wolf counterpart, this powerful predator likely became extinct because of its bulkier build. The time period in which it lived was one of vanishing prey, whether from climate change, human overhunting, or both. Many dire wolf fossils have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits in California. The gray wolf, though smaller, was faster on its feet and, perhaps because of this advantage, survived and thrived.
Hyaenodon (Hyainailouros sulzeri)
The meat-loving hyaenodon, larger than a lion, was the biggest apex predator of its time (Miocene). Its lengthy skull was equipped with massive jaws. It may have developed the capacity to crush bones. Its fossils have been found in France. These specialized predators became extinct approximately 20 million years ago.
A New Species
One researcher believes the Beast was a member of a new species, a type of snow canid, a wolf-dog version of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia). This creature would be able to negotiate steep valleys and snowy terrain. It would possess strong neck and shoulder muscles, a reinforced waist and lumbar region, powerful limbs for traveling in deep snow, and wide paws that would have been used, snowshoe-like, to traverse challenging terrain.
Prehistoric bear-dog, Amphicyon giganteus top, compared to ancient Hyaenodon, Hyainailouros sulzeri.
Bear
Brown Bear (Ursus arctos). The brown bear is a huge animal with a stocky body and short tail. Though the bear was suggested as a possible contender for the Beast, its morphology does not match descriptions of La Bête. Some researchers have suggested the possibility of a very strange hybrid, one resulting from a bear and a wolf/dog cross, something genetically impossible.
Monkey
Olive Baboon (Papio anubis). This is one of the most common species of baboon, widely distributed throughout Africa and found in many zoos, menageries, and private collections. Its elongated muzzle provides it with a profile close to that of a wolf-dog; because of this wolfish morphology, it was associated in Europe with the werewolf phenomena. In some historical accounts, the Beast is compared (morphologically) to this type of primate. For example, when La Bête is described as an animal capable of walking on its hind legs (bipedalism) when it wades through a river. However, this type of baboon is unable to survive in cold temperatures and snowy regions.
Armored Dog (Canis familiaris)
Some researchers have suggested that the Beast could have been an army-trained battle dog, protected from bullets by external armor. Napoleon himself used dogs in campaigning and for protection, although it is not clear whether or not they were armored. A German inventory of 1542 lists two “white” (steel) suits of armor for dogs. A seventeenth-century suit of armor for a Hundepanzer (armored dog) survives. It is made from four layers of linen, covered with buttonhole-stitched eyelets. This was probably worn by a boarhound—a large hunting dog, such as a mastiff or Great Dane or similar, bred and trained to attack large prey (boar, as well as elk, deer, etc.). It was protected this way from the deadly tusks of ferocious wild pigs.
A seventeenth-century Hundepanzer (armored dog), protected to hunt large dangerous prey.
Tiger Cat
The next section of our field guide to possible carnivores of the Gévaudan is devoted to some of the most charismatic flesh-eaters of all time, the big cats.
This inventory cannot be complete without mentioning an intriguing animal detailed in a March 25, 1765, letter from J. Bourgeois, a parson of Bouconville, France:
Dear sirs, the fierce beast that ravaged the Gévaudan seems, according to the description that was made in the newspapers and gazettes, be a tiger cat; A strange animal and I think we cannot find anywhere but in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, where there are many. M. Nicole in his geography, Volume 2 page 391, 1758 edition, says that these animals would be very frightening to people eating wild young calves that are abundant in the peninsula. Hence I conclude that this animal must naturally flee beef, cow, and even large dogs. But offering it its favorite food of calf could surprise by exposing him in the forest or in the countryside in different places. The bait, a calf six weeks or two months old would lie in the middle of several traps with poison spilled on the body (hide), or setting out a battery of several guns with attached ropes (they would fire if the animal would walk on them). This could be performed by your orders. That this animal is one or two of the unknown species in the Gévaudan, according to some relations, they would have been landed in France, probably by the Mediterranean, perhaps by the ocean. The desire to see the Languedoc soon free from this formidable animal is the only motive that led me to take the liberty to give you this letter, hoping that you will receive it as evidence of patriotic zeal. I have the honor, etc.
What could Father Bourgeois’s “tiger cat” be? A real-life species, something new? Also—why is the Yucatan mentioned? The only living animal that could slightly resemble a “tiger cat from Yucatan” is the modern-day jaguar (Panthera onca). This neotropical species has a wide distribution, ranging from southern North America (Arizona) through Mexico (including Yucatan and Belize, where they are numerous), south to Argentina.
This is the largest big cat in the Americas, and as many know, it has a beautiful pelage (coat) of open black spots over a yellowish background, similar to the color pattern of the African leopard. But a humorous and crucial consideration that also brings the “tiger cat” from Yucatan closer to the jaguar identity is the fact the jaguar is known in most of South America as a tigre (“tiger” in Spanish and French). By the way, the tigre usually prowls around villages and cultivated fields in search of prey. If it encounters a dog, even a big one, the cat will readily attack, kill, and devour. The same applies to cattle. South America is famous for its prime beef, cattle often maintained in fields that were once jungle. In such ranch-dominated habitats, cattle have become the jaguar’s main food. The jaguar dispatches its prey with a deadly bite, the most powerful of all the big cats, often biting the back of the head, or employing a suffocating throat bite. It rarely attacks humans; usually this occurs when the big cat is provoked or harassed, for example during organized hunts, in which dogs and bloodhounds are used.
The connection between Father Bourgeois’s Mexican “tiger cat” and the jaguar are clear. One can imagine an unfortunate animal, maybe one used to approaching Latin American villages to hunt some livestock from time to time, being captured and shipped to France to be displayed as an exotic living trophy.
Was La Bête an escaped jaguar roaming freely in the French countryside?
Tiger (Panthera tigris)
Classification:
Order Carnivora, Family Felidae
The tiger is the largest of all big cats, measuring up to 300 centimeters in length (head and body) and weighing as much as 325 kilograms. Subspecies of tiger are found in India, Russia, China, Indonesia, and North Korea. It is known, of course, for its magnificent coat, consisting of dark stripes against a red-orange or yellow ochre background. The tiger’s habitat is varied, from tropical jungles to deciduous forests to
the coniferous forests of Siberia. It’s also at home in swamplands, grasslands, and savanna.
The tiger has a widely varied diet, ranging from types of deer, wild pigs, buffalo, antelope, and livestock, to rodents, invertebrates (beetles, locusts, etc.), birds, fish, and reptiles. A hungry animal may consume thirty to fifty kilograms (about 66 to 110 pounds) in one meal. In captivity they are fed approximately ten to twelve kilograms of meat per day.
Tiger attacks on people were reported in various regions of Russia in the nineteenth century; most were apparently somehow instigated by humans, but several were not. Tigers attacked and killed more than twenty people in eastern Russia and wounded others in the mid-1800s, but no such reports were made in the twentieth century. Accounts of tigers going after and killing dozens of people (such as workers in isolated conditions) occurred in China over the years until 1949. In India, where big cats compete for space with humans and are unable to find natural prey, there have been many conflicts, with hundreds of people killed over the last two centuries. Because tigers attack their prey from the rear, humans who venture into tiger habitats are often advised to wear masks on the back of their heads.
Tiger head and reconstructed skull. Some man-eating tigers in India claimed hundreds of victims.
Tiger/Beast of Gévaudan connection:
Some eyewitness descriptions that link the identity of the Beast with that of a tiger:
• A huge ferocious animal similar to some kind of big carnivorous predator, its head described as resembling that of a big cat (Panthera spp.).
• In a letter dating from April 17, 1765, a curate of the diocese of Reims suggests that La Bête is a tiger cat, as discussed earlier.
• In November 1765, a dispatch listing animals most often mentioned in connection to the Beast includes tigers, leopards, lynxes, and hyenas.
Weakest characteristics for Beast identity:
• Conspicuous orange coloration
• Short muzzle
• Black stripes all over
• Long striped tail
• Retractable claws (non-visible when relaxed)
Strongest characteristics for Beast identity:
• Very large size
• A classic and much sought-after animal in all sorts of royal and aristocratic private collections and menageries
• A typical attraction in zoos and circuses
• May become a man-eater under environmental or health stress, although such individuals are rare
• The Siberian, or Amur tiger, is capable of surviving in cold temperatures/snowy regions
Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Classification:
Order Carnivora, Family Felidae
There are twenty-four recognized subspecies of the leopard found throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Leopards can measure up to 190 centimeters in length and weigh as much as seventy-one kilograms. Males are usually larger than females. Smaller than the tiger or lion, the leopard has a long body and is very nimble. It is noted for its spots, having black spots of two types, solid or annular (rosettes) against a background of yellow or reddish-yellow color. Zoologist R. I. Pocock found the following trends in coloration for leopards in Africa:
Two typical members of the big cat family: leopard, top, next to a tiger, bottom.
• Savanna leopards are rufous to ochreous (rust-red to yellow ochre) in color.
• Desert leopards range from pale cream to yellow-brown in color. Those from cooler regions are grayer.
• Rainforest leopards are a dark or deep gold in color.
• High mountain leopards are even darker in color.
Leopards are found in forests, steppes, savannas, and mountain regions of extreme altitudes. Like tigers, leopards can feed on everything from insects and mice to large herbivores and antelopes. They favor medium-size herbivores weighing from twenty to eighty kilograms. Studies have found average intervals between leopard kills range from seven to twelve or thirteen days. Average daily consumption rates have been estimated at about three kilograms of meat, a little more for males, less for females. Other prey may include wild pigs, monkeys, wild sheep, hares, porcupines, birds, reptiles, crabs and other arthropods, and domestic animals.
There are human records of European Ice Age cave leopards, along with other carnivores, in paintings in Chauvet Cave in southern France (Upper Paleolithic), which are dated to about twenty-five thousand to thirty-seven thousand years before the present. The cave leopard became extinct in Europe about twenty-four thousand years ago. The modern leopard survived into the Holocene in Europe; remains have been found in France (a skull was recovered in 1924 in an Ariège cave in the Pyrenees), Spain, and Greece. There is some thought that leopards may have lived in areas such as Greece and the Ukraine into modern times. Remains from medieval Rome are believed to be those of leopards introduced from other countries.
Like the other carnivores discussed here, leopards will eat livestock if populations are stressed and natural prey is unavailable. A small number may become man-eaters, sometimes aggressively seeking prey by breaking into human homes. There are reports of this in Asia and Africa, and (rarely) in China. One Indian leopard is said to have killed more than two hundred people. Famed twentieth-century Indian-born British outdoorsman Jim Corbett—said to have killed more than thirty man-eating animals that had allegedly killed over one thousand people—noted that leopards are also known to consume human cadavers at cremation sites. Such cases are infrequent in Russia, though attacks were reported in the late 1800s in the Caucasus, and in Iran, an aged leopard with time-worn dentition unsuccessfully jumped a man in the early twentieth century. There are also accounts of leopards trailing people without attacking.
Leopard head and reconstructed skull. Their adaptability to live close to human settlements brings the felines in contact and conflict with people.
Leopard/Beast of Gévaudan connection:
Some Beast witness descriptions linked the creature with:
• A panther (black leopard) that escaped from a zoo, menagerie, or private collection.
• A huge ferocious animal similar to some kind of big carnivorous predator, its head described as resembling that of a big cat (Panthera spp.).
• In February 1764, subdelegate Montluc wrote a small report in which the Beast is described as having “a large head, pointed muzzle, and elongated body … believed to be a leopard.”
• In October 1764, Duhamel, Captain of the Clermont-Prince volunteers, stated that “a leopard probably prowled the hills around Langogne.”
• In November 1765, there was a dispatch listing the animals most often mentioned in connection with the Beast’s atrocities, including leopards, tigers, lynxes, and hyenas.
• Monarchs and aristocrats routinely imported wild animals, among them the panther and the leopard, for use in hunting.
• That leopards were used for hunting is indicated by the existence of a Lombardic sketch of a hunting leopard from the fifteenth century.
• Big cats (especially leopards) were trophy animals, as reflected in some historical French medieval monographic works on the topic.
Weakest characteristics for Beast identity:
• Short muzzle
• Spotted all over
• Retractable claws (not visible when relaxed)
Strongest characteristics for Beast identity:
• The leopard is a classic and much sought-after animal in all sorts of royal and aristocratic private collections and menageries
• A typical attraction in zoos and circuses
• Also, as mentioned earlier, used as hunting animal
• Former European distribution
• May become a man-eater under environmental or health stress
• Capable of thriving close to human settlements
• Capable of surviving in cold temperatures and snowy regions
Lion (Panthera leo spelaea)
Classification:
Order Carnivora, Family Felidae
The lion’s range today consists primarily of sub-Saharan Africa, though in the past it was distributed much further, even into Europe, where it apparently became extinct almost two thousand years ago.
The lion is the second largest big cat, with record measurements for length of a lion specimen at three and one-third meters (more than ten and one-half feet), including its tail. Record weight is 272 kilograms (about 600 pounds) for a male and 152 kilograms for a female.
The male lion is characterized by its mane, though some males are without. Both male and female have brown-yellow coats, though paler leucistic specimens are found. This is caused by a genetic loss of pigmentation (not albinism) and is also found in tigers.
The lion’s natural habitat consists of savanna grasslands and scrub forest. Here, lions often scavenge for a meal, consuming injured or sick animals or, when possible, those killed by other predators. The lioness does most of the hunting. Like many predators, lions will eat what they can take, including rodents, but prefer animals such as zebras, impalas, wildebeests, and buffalo.
The mighty cave lion, Panthera leo spealea, was a Pleistocene species that probably survived into historical times (one to two thousand years ago) in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The most common prehistoric big cat, it was widespread in Europe, including France. It was 8 to 10 percent larger than the biggest African lions.
Problem animals (individuals that hunt humans) have been reported in southeast Tanzania and northern Mozambique. As we’ve stated, this occurs when natural prey is scarce or absent, when healthy individuals are crippled by natural causes or through injuries caused by humans (gunfire, traps, etc.), and sometimes when old exemplars are incapable of hunting wild game on their own (poor condition, issues with dentition, reduced mobility, etc.). See the sidebar on the man-eating lions of Tsavo, Kenya.
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