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The Beast of G�vaudan and Other "Maulers"
(originally published in The Cryptozoology Review 1:2, Fall 1996)
For the residents of the tiny district of G�vaudan, nestled high in the Margeride Mountains of south-central France, the terror began one day in June of 1764. On that day, a young peasant from the village of Langogne was out tending her family's herd of cattle in the For�t de Mercoire. Suddenly, a tremendous wolf-like animal loped out of the forest, heading towards the girl. Her dogs turned tail and ran at the sight of this terrifying apparition; the cattle charged at the monster. Seemingly undeterred by the cattle, the creature continued to make its way towards the young shepherdess. The cattle charged it once more, this time driving it back into the forest from whence it came (1).
This young woman was much luckier than many later victims of la B�te Anthropophage du G�vaudan (the man-eating beast of G�vaudan), for very few survived an attack by the monster. Descriptions varied widely, but most agreed that it was wolf-like, though nearly the size of a cow. Its chest was wide, its tail long and thin with a lion-like tuft of fur at its end. Its snout was like that of a greyhound, and large fangs protruded from its formidable jaws. The beast was believed to be incredibly agile - it was credited with taking leaps of up to 30 feet (2). The Paris Gazette, carrying a story about the monster, commented that it was reddish in colour, that its chest was wide and grey, and that the hind legs were longer than the fore legs. Another account of the beast, published in the English Saint James' Chronicle, stated that the beast was probably a member of "a new species". Here we have what is quite possibly the first mention of the beast in a cryptozoological light (3).
Although the story of the Beast of G�vaudan is doubtless embellished greatly in terms of its size and other features, the facts remain: some sort of large creature was ravaging the district, killing people more often than livestock. The beast seems to have had a definite preference for attacking victims around the head, oftentimes crushing the skull and eating the entrails. Wounds of this type were also displayed by victims of a similar creature which prowled Limerick, Ireland, more than a century later.
After three long years of terror in the region and the shooting of "wolves" supposed to be the beast (by Antoine de Beauterne, King Louis XV's chief huntsman), the monster was finally killed at the Sogne d'Aubert by a hermit named Jean Chastel.
So who, or what, was the beast? Popular opinion at the time held it to be punishment from God, a Loup-Garou (werewolf), or some sort of demon summoned by a sorcerer. (In fact, some claimed to have seen the beast in the company of a man (4).) Many more believed that it was a wolf or some other natural creature, citing a number of instances in which two or more beasts, presumably a mated pair with cubs, had been seen together (5). Other explanations offered by the learned folk of the day held that the beast was a bear, a wolverine, or even a baboon. Some modern researchers believe it to have been a serial killer who took advantage of a wolf in the area (6). Another popular theory is that the beast was a wolf-dog hybrid (7).
A well-known Celtic sculpture commonly known as the "Tarasque" of Noves, found at the base of the Pyrenees in France, depicts a large wolf-like animal similar to the Beast of G�vaudan. Each of its front paws rests on a human head, and a human arm is under its large jaw (8). A similar sculpture found at Linsdorf, in Alsace, France, may perhaps have been used to hold a human skull (9). These animals have been thought to be lions, wolves, bears, or imaginary monsters (10).
A similar creature was referred to as the arenotelicon in medieval bestiaries. The arenotelicon, which was thought to dwell in wild forests, was widely believed to be a European relative of the hyena or tiger. The creature had a serrated ridge down its spine, feet armed with prodigious claws, a maned neck (a feature which appears on some depictions of the Beast of G�vaudan), and was either hairless or covered in short hair (11). A creature similar to the arenotelicon was supposedly captured around 1530. According to some sources this happened in the Hauberg Forest, Saxony, Germany (12), while others say it occurred in the Fannsberg Forest, Salzburg, Austria (13). It was "yellowish-carnation" in colour (14).
There have also been creatures reported in more recent times that are similar to the Beast of G�vaudan. One could perhaps refer to these mysterious creatures, which are often reported to kill sheep, as "maulers." The following list details some of these modern reports.
No. 1. June 1764-June 1767; G�vaudan (now Loz�re), France. A series of sightings and killings occurred which was described above.
No. 2. May-September 1810; Ennerdale Water, Cumbria, England. A creature killed sheep and tore open the throat and sucked the blood rather than devouring them (15).
No. 3. January-April 1874; County Cavan, Ireland. An unknown animal killed at least 42 sheep. It tore open the throat, sucking the blood and eating a tiny piece of meat (or no meat at all). The creature left footprints resembling a cat's, but with claws (16).
No. 4. 17 April 1874; Limerick, County Limerick, Ireland. A wolf-like animal killed sheep. Several persons, all of whom had been attacked by the creature, were sent to Ennis Insane Asylum after developing a peculiar type of insanity (17).
No. 5. July 1893; Orel Oblast, Russia. A beast similar to that of G�vaudan terrorized the village of Trosna. It attacked 10 women and children between the 6th and the 24th, killing 3; it was described as long, with a blunt snout and smooth tail (18).
No. 6. November 1905; Badminton, Gloucestershire, England. An animal attacked and killed a number of sheep, sucking their blood and leaving "the flesh almost untouched" (19).
No. 7. 19 March 1906; Guilford, Kent, England. An unknown animal ravaged area farms, killing 51 sheep in one night (20).
No. 8. April-December 1993; Plovdiv, Bulgaria. A mysterious blood-sucking, cat-like creature which had glowing eyes had killed 16 people, including one Scottiz Karpulsky (21).
These maulers are a strange lot indeed, skirting the line between the natural and supernatural as do so many cryptids. Although the specifics of each mauler case vary greatly, some points are common to all. The typical mauler seems to be long and dark- coloured, sometimes with a lighter patch on the chest, and often with small ears and short legs. They seem equally comfortable on two legs or four. They are sometimes almost supernaturally fast, taking enormous leaps of 20 feet or more. They also seem to have a great preference for attacking a victim, whether human or animal, around the head or neck; a great many are credited with sucking the blood of the victim rather than devouring the victim itself. A serrated back is mentioned occasionally, but this is a rare (and probably invented) detail, and many are credited with leaving tracks that appear to be a cat's but which show extended claws.
No previously proposed identification entirely fits the evidence. Wolves and wolf-dog hybrids do not account satisfactorily for the blood loss in the victims, or the peculiar cat- like tracks the maulers leave.
But members of the carnivoran family Mustelidae, the mustelids (such as the weasel, otter and wolverine), share many characteristics with maulers. They are typified as "small, long-bodied, short-legged animals, with thick, silky fur, and ... a fetid odour" (22). This odour is given off during situations where the animal feels threatened, being secreted from anal glands. Nowhere is this odour more apparent than in one of the family's representatives, the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis).
Another mustelid, the wolverine, is sometimes referred to as the "glutton," for its depredations can indeed be great. Mustelids are fearless animals, attacking nearly anything they feel they have even a chance of bringing down. The wolverine and many other members of the family have a preference for either lying in ambush in a tree and jumping upon a victim's head, or leaping at the victim's throat.
One species in particular, the pine marten (Martes martes), fits many characteristics of maulers almost perfectly. The pine marten is a small, weasel-like animal (barely bigger than an average house cat) that preys on rodents and birds, occasionally eating eggs or fruit. The pine marten is unusually agile, living most of its life in trees. It has a dark brown, almost black, colour and a cream-coloured patch around the throat. Most reports of maulers are from areas within the pine marten's range, and it would leave "clawed-cat"-type tracks. (One difference, however, is that martens are nocturnal while most maulers seem to be diurnal; however, this detail is a relatively minor one.)
I am not proposing that maulers are pine martens in the strictest sense; pine martens are far too unimpressive. There may be a subspecies, however, that co-exists with its substantially smaller conspecifics, which would account for sightings of maulers and accounts of their depredations. Maulers seem to kill mainly sheep; a marten of normal size regularly feeds off of large rabbits and other animals larger than itself. Sheep are not large animals--it wouldn't take a very large creature to kill a sheep, or to leave the size tracks maulers often leave.
Many of the supernatural-seeming attributes can be explained plausibly by a mustelid identification, such as the insanity caused by the bite of some of these creatures, which could be explained as a concussion caused by the dropping of the animal onto the skull; to a shard of bone penetrating the brain and causing infection; or trauma from the attack. The seeming ineffectiveness of weapons against maulers (particularly the Beast of G�vaudan) can be attributed to something as obvious as the speed of these creatures.
In conclusion, I propose that the mauler is a new subspecies of the pine marten. We may typify the appearance of the mauler as 2 feet in height, 8 feet in length, black in colour, with a cream-coloured or white patch on the chest. The animal has somewhat cat-like feet, and has a rather elongated body and is exceptionally agile.
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Left to right - the Tarasque of Noves; the medieval arenotelicon or hyaena.
(1) Pons, Gregory. 1992. "The Ravening Beast" in The
Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind Space & Time, Volume 3. (Westport, CT: H.S.
Stuttman), p. 286.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Clark, Jerome. 1993. Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings,
Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. (Detroit: Visible Ink), p.
20.
(4) Brockis, Derek.� The Auvergne Ogre.� France
(Winter 1995), p. 48.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Heuvelmans, Bernard.� Annotated Checklist of Apparently
Unknown Animals With Which Cryptozoology is Concerned. Cryptozoology
5 (1986), p. 12.
(7) Clarke. C. H. D.� The Beast of G�vaudan.� Natural
History (April 1971), pp. 70-72. Trotti, Hugh H., Jr.� A Dog in Wolf's
Clothing?� Cryptozoology 7 (1988), pp. 119-120. Buffetaut,
Eric.� Mad Dogs and Frenchmen.� Cryptozoology 7 (1988),
pp. 120-121.
(8) Megaw, J. V. S. 1976. Art of the European Iron Age
(New York: Harper and Row), p. 78.
(9) Stead, Ian. 1985.� The Linsdorf Monster. Antiquity
59, pp. 40-42.
(10) Megaw, op. cit. Stead, op. cit. Green, Miranda. Animals
in Celtic Life and Myth (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 150.
(11) Physiologus, medieval bestiary.
(12) Thompson, C. J. S. 1930. The Mysteries and Lore of
Monsters. (London: Williams and Norgat), p. 103.
(13) Ashton, John. 1890 (repr. 1968). Curious Creatures in
Zoology. (Detroit: Singing Tree), p. 61.
(14) Topsell, Edward. 1658 (repr. 1967). The History of
Four-footed Beasts. (New York: DaCapo Press), p. 13.
(15) Fort, Charles. 1931. Lo! (repr. as pp. 539-839 in
Fort, Charles.1971. The Complete Books of Charles Fort [New York: Dover]), pp.
643-644.
(16) Fort, op. cit., pp. 644-645.
(17) Fort, op. cit, p. 645.
(18) Fort, op. cit, pp. 647-648.
(19) Fort, op. cit, pp. 645-646.
(20) Fort, op. cit, p. 646.
(21) Shades of the Sucker.� Fortean Times
90 (October 1996), p. 16.
(22) Bertin, L�on (ed.). 1981. The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Animal Life. (New York: Bonanza), p. 559.