'Le Pacte des Loups' (Brotherhood of the Wolf - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237534/) was a 2001 french movie in which the beast turned out to be a wolf raised, bred and controlled by someone.
Somewhat randomly, that's one of my favorite movies. I'm not especially into any of the themes or anything, it's just so well done. Pacing, story, cinematography, acting, it all comes together in a really excellent way. It's worth watching (even spoiled. ;-P )
I enjoyed that movie. Some silly points but very pretty, lots of horses running in slow motion, etc... If I recall correctly the best turned out to be some exotic creature imported from Africa.
Beowulf comes to mind. A quick search indicates that the interpretation of Beowulf as a romance is rather contested, but I think modern renditions frequently fit the bill.
The logo of Marcel Robbez-Masson, a fairly big company specialized in producing gold jewelry, is the beast of Gevaudan, a neat way to trace to the company's roots in the Lozere region where the beast's legend originated: http://www.robbez.fr/
Short hair, color of a deer, long tail, claws... it sounds to me based solely on that description like a mountain lion. Makes me wonder if the townsfolk had not seen one before, so assumed it to be a 'weird looking wolf'. Then again, how one got there in the first place would be interesting.
Perhaps. I'm not well versed in education of the times, so take with a grain of salt. As far as I know, there are no big cats native to France, so it's likely they didn't know such a thing existed, or what it looked like.
In rural Kentucky when I was a younger, there were a string of cow killings in the area. Some farmers said it was a wolf or large coyote, but they didn't get a great look. One farmer called a trapper to kill it, and it was finally killed. It turned out to be a mountain lion. These farmers didn't even know they were in the area(they aren't supposed to be, in fairness). And this was in the information age.
I didn't mean a big feline. I meant literally a big cat. Something with a head that looks remarkably more similar to that of a domestic cat rather than a dog's.
Understood. Mountain Lions are kinda weird, they tend to have an elongated snout. They do resemble cats, mainly in the eyes, but could easily be mistaken for.. something else. Here's a picture I found to showcase that a bit, I wouldn't personally think it looks much catlike. YMMV.
Why do they consider "sub-adult-male" lion rather than just a female lion?
People wouldn't be familiar with it due to the lack of mane, but it would certainly be able to pray, and would match the claws and other characteristics, tho not the stripes.
I thought this was already cleared by History. They ran some program like over a decade ago where they concluded The Beast was a hyena, which was domesticated and used by the killer. This was a team, serial killer + beast.
I think that was the plot of the "Pacte Des Loups" movie others in the comments are discussing, but I don't know of the idea ever having been proven out.
I know that movie, I saw it. Also I watched their documentary, in it they actually traced documents that 2 centuries later stated that some national French archive achieved The beast taxidermy body and had a very clear description, which made them conclude it was a hyena.
I am very aware the difference between the movie and the documentary. Also in documentary they kinda accused the dude that shot it with silver bullets being the actual killer. According to their conclusion, the dude barely exited from the bishop that blessed his silver bullets and he encountered The Beast and shot it. They concluded that hyena was tamed by him and he simply call it and shot it to achieve fame. Then last frame in documentary was their detective team standing to some statue of that hunter that is erected in some village in France and concluding that France might celebrate a serial killer instead with that statue.
