La Bête du Gévaudan

La Bête du Gévaudan (French for: The Beast of Gévaudan) is a name given to man-eating wolf-like animals alleged to have terrorized the former province of Gévaudan (modern day département of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire), in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France from 1764 to 1767.

The beasts were consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable teeth and immense tails. Their fur had a reddish tinge, and was said to have emitted an unbearable odor.

They killed their victims by tearing at their throats with their teeth. The number of victims differs according to source. De Beaufort (1987) estimated 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten.

An enormous amount of manpower and resources was used in the hunting of the animals, including the army, conscripted civilians, several nobles, and a number of royal huntsmen.

Within the mythology of MTV’s Teen Wolf, an ancestor of the “Argent Family” killed the beast after his wife and four children were first to fall prey to the creature.

In reality, there is no Argent mentioned in the actual accounts of the La Bête story.