The Rougarou IS a werewolf!
Yes, the Rougarou is a Werewolf (A short tangent) Disclaimer: This is only in regard to how The Rougarou is described in the localized legends. It is not necessarily real. This is based on the folklore surrounding the supposed cryptid. Now, let us begin. I have a pet peeve. So many so-called Cryptozoologists don’t realize the Rougarou actually IS a werewolf and not merely “like” a werewolf. The reason is they either trust the description used in the Epic Universe theme parks cryptid shop (who differentiate because they have their own unique werewolf lore) or because they assume the movies about werewolves are accurate and they don’t actually know the older folklore. There’s also an odd squeamishness that some modern Cryptozoologists don’t want to consider that one of their precious cryptids has roots in traditional folklore and they are afraid of ridicule for investigating a possible werewolf. But that IS what the rougarou is. 1. In regard to the argument that actual werewolves are half-Man and half-wolf and that a Rougarou is often just a man who becomes a wolf or a man with a wolf head I’ll address that in segments. First the half-man / half-wolf notion. Traditional werewolf folklore was not "Half man / Half wolf." It's man into wolf. Were meaning man and Wolf. In traditional, very old, werewolf folklore a human deliberately transforms himself into a literal wolf, not a bipedal creature like in the movies. That comes later in more modern lore. Many so-called werewolves were burnt at the stake in the middle ages because they were believed to be tormenting the farmers and killing livestock, particularly in the Auvergne of France. The oldest known werewolf story is of King Lycaon of Arcadia, from whom we get the terms Lycanthrope, Lycanthropy and the modern Lycan. In his story his eyes remained human while in wolf form but otherwise looked like an actual wolf but while in man form he had the eyes of a wolf as a sort of “tell” so that he could never truly be of one world or the other.
2. In regard to the claim that the rougarou can appear in his beastly form whenever he wants (or all the time in his beast form) but mostly at night, and not merely on the full moon “and that’s why he’s not a werewolf...” The notion that a werewolf only turns on the full moon was popularized in the 1940s thanks to The Wolfman movie. In traditional foklore they could turn at will. Sometimes they were more feral and wolf-like in manner during the full moon but they could turn whenever they felt like it. Sometimes if enraged and often by choice.
3. Rougarou or Rou-Garou is just accented French that distorted from the colliding accents in Louisiana. Louisiana, particularly New Orleans was and is a cultural melting pot. The French word is Loup-Garou and this is French for.... werewolf. Rou-Garou is a localized pronunciation of the French Loup-Garou and that is literally French for werewolf. This is why the creature is sometimes called the Bayou Werewolf. It’s not merely a nickname. That IS what he is supposed to be. And it is very disrespectful and sleazy that Universal Studios has gone out of its way to spread the notion that the rougarou is “Not a werewolf” but merely ”like” a werewolf because the folklore he comes from doesn’t quite match their precious, copyrighted, Wolfman version of a Werewolf.
It's a major pet-peeve of mine when people (and Universal's Epic Universe) describe the Rougarou as being "Like" a werewolf when he literally is a werewolf. It's culturally insulting and ignores the heritage the lore came from because people only know pop culture werewolves now and not the folklore.
4. The notion that he’s only “like” a werewolf and “not actually a werewolf” because he has the head of a wolf and the body of a man in some descriptions - Werewolves that are humans with the head of a wolf are popular in some parts of Scotland and parts of Eastern Europe. There's even a friendly werewolf with that description in Scottish legend, who leaves fresh fish on the windowsills of poor families so they won’t starve. And some Eastern Orthodox / Greek Orthodox followers depict Saint Christopher as a wolf headed man werewolf. There’s Eastern European folklore that makes Saint Christopher a werewolf exactly like the Rougarou. Also there are some stories where the Rougarou can talk like a man while in his bestial form. This also does not take away from the idea that he is a werewolf. Some werewolves are depicted as being able to speak like people while in wolf form. It is not a common part of the lore but it is out there, sometimes depicted in animation or comedies like with Wayne The Werewolf in Hotel Transylvania.
5. The notion that the rougarou is only “Like” a werewolf because he’s believed to probably be immortal “and werewolves are not.” Well, in the original 1941 Wolfman franchise, in the movie Monster Squad, and in the movie Monster Mash (2024) the werewolves in those movies were depicted as mostly immortal and could only be temporarily killed or killed with very specific means. They even had regenerative powers in Monster Squad and Monster Mash. Often they are shown as not aging like Wayne The werewolf in Hotel Transylvania. In the Sandman issue “The Hunt” by Neil Gaiman, the werewolves were very long lived. Not precisely immortal but they had very long life-spans. But in a lot of lore they were literally immortal. The first known werewolf story is the Greek myth of King Lycaon of Arcadia. Many early werewolf stories depicted them as being similar to sidhe and other magical and immortal entities in that their vulnerability was iron. The weakness to silver was not described until the eighteenth century and then it wasn’t popularized until Hollywood started doing werewolf movies. One curious bit of nineteenth century lore claimed that if a werewolf was somehow killed, he could return as a vampire. This is why some stories have the overlapping weaknesses of fire, decapitation, and silver. This may be why Dracula has such a fondness for wolves in Bram Stoker’s novel, and why his weaknesses match some werewolf lore, as well as his ability to transform into a wolf (besides bat). I wish more self-professed Cryptozoologists would stop using a zoologist pretense (ofhen with little to no knowledge of taxonomy). Because when they do this, when they put on that persona, they become dismissive of- or even chafe at- the notion that what they are investigating has its roots in folklore. Too many modern Cryptozoologists ignore folklore and treat the entities they investigate like they are all alien lifeforms or just animal sub-species. In the case of the Rougarou it’s a changed pronunciation of Loup-Garou. Literally “Werewolf.” The “L” to “R” was not because it is only “Like” a werewolf and “not actually” a werewolf. It was just because of linguistic enunciation shifts. It’s like how some parts of the American South pronounce Haunt as “Haint” (like “ain’t”) instead of the more traditional haw-nt. The Rougarou IS a werewolf. End of rant. My sources for this interpretation of the lore:
The werewolf Handbook by Dr. Robert Curran Werewolves by Dr. Robert Curran
Werewolves: The Encyclopedia of shape-shifting beings
Werewolves by Daniel Cohen
