What was the source of the sightings of what came to be known as the Beast of Gévaudan?

This indeed was a group of extraterrestrial wolf-like animals and this is the reason they were puzzling and terrifying to those who sighted them. They did not look like anything seen previously and were, as described by first-hand observers, quite large with extensive jaws lined with sharp teeth and were very savage. They were brought in as a kind of lark by the Reptilians who wanted to shake things up and do a kind of test case to see if this could be capitalized on further. The hue and cry and the relentless hunting that ensued discouraged them from doing this on a more widespread scale and that is just as well because these were animals designed to be savage predators from their makeup and would have been quite a hazard introduced worldwide.