A series of animal killings, which took place in 18th century France. The idenity of the beast(s),has never been established. The favourites being a wolf/dog cross or possibly a hyena.

http://labete.7hunters.net/bete1.htm



Trike.

I saw a documentary on that - the conclusion was a hyena trained to attack. Sounded a but dodgy to me.

Hi Nan,

There is a French film about this called "The Brotherhood of the Wolf",which ends, identifying the creature as a lion kept by a gang.

A work published this year suggests a sub-adult lion as the culprit:

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/27/solving-the-mystery-of-the-18th-century-killer-beast-of-gevaudan/

It's a reasonably plausible theory although one needs to question how many years it takes for a sub-adult male lion to reach full maturity and also how mild were the winters in south-central France in the mid-1660s. This season of 2016 marks the 350th anniversary of the third and final winter of those 3 years of terror.

Well, on the basis that "maturity" for a lion means expulsion from his maternal pride, and that occurs between 2 & 3 years of age, I have my doubts on that identification.