If you’re like me, you read that headline and immediately thought, hey, wait a minute, the Rougarou *is* a Cajun werewolf. And you, like me, would be correct. But as I recently heard on some television program (one of those dramatizing supposed real-life encounters with paranormal entities, Bigfoot, etc.) there are some who maintain that there is a difference, too, between one and the other. It’s a tad confusing, to be sure. Do a quick google search and you will find plenty of mentions of the Rougarou (or alternately Roogaroo) as a “Cajun werewolf”. So what gives?
I think it’s far more accurate to say that the Rougarou is a particular *type* of werewolf. It has its own specific behaviors, such as serving as a sort of protector of the bayous—which is exactly what this show I was watching said, only it said this was the duty not of the Rougarou but of a werewolf. The Rougarou, as this show put it, is a “flesh and blood” creature whereas the Cajun werewolf is more spectral. Ima call horseshit.
The segment of this show, “Monsters and Mysteries in America”, was called “Cajun Werewolf”. And it was, whether the producers realized it or not—and it seems they did not—talking about the Rougarou.
Is it possible to have a Cajun werewolf that is not a Rougarou? Probably, sure. But is it possible to have a Rougarou that isn’t a Cajun werewolf?