The beast lives

[Story]

A bit-post period, but does anyone remember the tale?

Tiger feared on the loose

Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:33AM EDT

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - Police in southwestern France are searching for a big cat, possibly a young tiger, that has been spotted prowling in a village near the city of Bordeaux, the village's mayor said Thursday.

Officials from the National Hunting Office have also laid traps for the animal after a woman and her daughter saw it repeatedly in their garden.

"At first they didn't believe it, but the third time the animal was 10 meters (yards) away from them," Pierre Soubabere, mayor of Saint-Louis-de-Montferrand, told Reuters.

Another resident has seen the cat roaming the countryside, and its tracks suggest it is a young tiger, though it could be a jaguar or a leopard.

Soubabere said no such animal had been reported missing in the area, not even by circuses that spend part of the year in a neighboring town.

[Black Syren]

This was actually based on a true story was it not?

[michaelsbagley]

I've only seen "The Brotherhood of the Wolf" once, and it was some time ago..... But I always took the "beast" from that movie to be a hyena....

And I think this might belong more in "Pirate Pop" or some other channel in the forum than in twill....

[Black Syren]

I think the King of France and some of his court once thought it a werewolf. But I think it was a wolf. I really need to see this movie again

[Red-Handed Jill]

I saw the movie not too long ago and it was a lion that had been covered in armor and trained to kill people. The movie was based on an incident that occurred in France in the 1760's or thereabout. The creature was called the Beast of Gevaudan and there were lots of theories about what the "beast" actually was, although I don't think anyone ever found out. However, a lot of people saw the creature with a man, so it could be they were working together to kill all those people.

Slight tangent: see the movie again - the costumes are magnificent!

[Story]

La Bête du Gévaudan was a real wolf-like monster prowling the Auvergne and South Dordogne areas of France during the years 1764 to 1767, killing about 100 people, often in bizarre circumstances. Every effort to stop her failed and she became nationally infamous. The King - Louis XV - took a personal interest, one reason being the unrest she caused in an area of religious/political tension and potential revolution. Many explanations - mutant, prehistoric beast etc. - were put forward at the time and during the two centuries since but none has ever been generally accepted. The important firm fact is that sufficient evidence remains to prove La Bête really did exist and was not just a myth. Among all the popular monster mysteries she is unique - she left behind one hundred bodies proving herself real and guilty beyond doubt.

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

[Tartan Jack]

First matter: the movie

It WAS based on a REAL series of events. In the movie, they postulate it was a lion covered in armour. When I saw it (told to watch it by SEVERAL inc. BOTH brother in laws-> originally I had ignored it as so much science fiction), I did some research on the background. It was VERY interesting. Contemporary theories were ALL over the place, with MOST thinking it was some sort of GIANT wolf. The large cat-theory seems like a rather plausible solution. Whether it was trained to kill (like and evil Sigfreid and Roy) or just someone brought a kitten home with them and "released" it when it got bigger (see below).

The modern News: There now seem to be a NUMBER of wild cats found in the wild when they USED to be extinct.

There are wild cats now in Britain, which there has not been in centuries (from what I understand). In my OWN area, there used to be panthers/mountain lions, aka catamounts-> Cats of the Mount-ain, a large brown/tan cougar-like indigenous large cat, but it was officially extinct. THIS is the ORIGIN of the Carolina Panther football team name, though the local panther was brown and the team used a black one as a mascot. There were occasional reports of them being seen BUT no bodies or recent skeletons, so it was seen as a "mountain myth." HOWEVER, there are now REAL reports, sightings, and even KILLINGS of BLACK panthers, esp in the mountains west of Charlotte, but expanding south and north along that Aps. I've heard/seen reports of the "return of the mountain lions," but I have doubts that these cats have ANYTHING to do with the indigenous cats. MY postulation (and one a number of experts ALSO came to) is that people BOUGHT (illegally) cute and cuddly black panther kittens in honor of the football team. However, as the cats got bigger, their owners could no longer afford the large amounts of food. So, they did the "humane" thing and released the cats "back to nature." The PROBLEM, however, is that the cats were/are NOT NATIVE and do not have a natural territory nor place in the food chain. Therefore, the natural balanced was altered by the introduction of a top level predator into a people-heavy "nature" where folks hike, camp, etc.

Most of the European things are likely similar matters, esp cats from the 60s/70s that their owners could not really afford to feed, so they were released. I also seem to recall a similar rise in the popularity of large cat kittens in the late 90s/early 2000s. So, I would postulate that the NEW problems are THOSE cats and their descendants.

The British wild cat seems to be a new breed from the interbreeding of various types of wild cats in the "Wilds of the Isle."

SO, what do bo the rest of ya'll think of that?

[Story]

SO, what do bo the rest of ya'll think of that?

I think that's exactly why I posted it in Captain Twill - the link between the movie's lion and the real cat wandering around the same area was pretty obvious.

How many odd bits of history are quickly forgotten or fictionalized (like those freak waves towering over mast-tops), until something happens in present day to reawaken our collective memories?

[JoshuaRed]

Saw it in the theater when it first came out. I remember loving it. The sketches of the beast that were presented to the king in the movie were awesome, even though they were done in a modern comic style, not at all the drawing style of the 18th century.

Nice kinda spaghetti-western feel to the movie too. Now I have to rent it again!

[HildeKitten]

Bert and I own that movie.

Although on our DVD box it says Le Pacte des Loups

(living in trilingual Belgium and all that)

I really love it, great story, great costumes, great effects, great acting.

I can't really say much about la bête as I've not done much research into the original legend, but my guess is that pretty much anything could have happened.

Big cat and extraordinary big wolf both sound plausible to me.

[capnwilliam]

First matter: the movie

It WAS based on a REAL series of events. In the movie, they postulate it was a lion covered in armour. When I saw it (told to watch it by SEVERAL inc. BOTH brother in laws-> originally I had ignored it as so much science fiction), I did some research on the background. It was VERY interesting. Contemporary theories were ALL over the place, with MOST thinking it was some sort of GIANT wolf. The large cat-theory seems like a rather plausible solution. Whether it was trained to kill (like and evil Sigfreid and Roy) or just someone brought a kitten home with them and "released" it when it got bigger (see below).

The modern News: There now seem to be a NUMBER of wild cats found in the wild when they USED to be extinct.

There are wild cats now in Britain, which there has not been in centuries (from what I understand). In my OWN area, there used to be panthers/mountain lions, aka catamounts-> Cats of the Mount-ain, a large brown/tan cougar-like indigenous large cat, but it was officially extinct. THIS is the ORIGIN of the Carolina Panther football team name, though the local panther was brown and the team used a black one as a mascot. There were occasional reports of them being seen BUT no bodies or recent skeletons, so it was seen as a "mountain myth." HOWEVER, there are now REAL reports, sightings, and even KILLINGS of BLACK panthers, esp in the mountains west of Charlotte, but expanding south and north along that Aps. I've heard/seen reports of the "return of the mountain lions," but I have doubts that these cats have ANYTHING to do with the indigenous cats. MY postulation (and one a number of experts ALSO came to) is that people BOUGHT (illegally) cute and cuddly black panther kittens in honor of the football team. However, as the cats got bigger, their owners could no longer afford the large amounts of food. So, they did the "humane" thing and released the cats "back to nature." The PROBLEM, however, is that the cats were/are NOT NATIVE and do not have a natural territory nor place in the food chain. Therefore, the natural balanced was altered by the introduction of a top level predator into a people-heavy "nature" where folks hike, camp, etc.

Most of the European things are likely similar matters, esp cats from the 60s/70s that their owners could not really afford to feed, so they were released. I also seem to recall a similar rise in the popularity of large cat kittens in the late 90s/early 2000s. So, I would postulate that the NEW problems are THOSE cats and their descendants.

The British wild cat seems to be a new breed from the interbreeding of various types of wild cats in the "Wilds of the Isle."

SO, what do bo the rest of ya'll think of that?

Your analysis seems right on the mark to me, Wages.

Capt. William

[BriarRose Kildare]

For me I must say that Brotherhood of the Wolf was an excellent movie. I only wish that they would have left in the uncut parts for it would have given the movie more substance in creating a more eerie setting.

The actors, character portrayl, the costuming, story line, the direction and cinamatography were absolutely wonderful.