Deep in the stately, dead-calm tranquility of the Barataria swamps, Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes reclines on a secluded bench and somberly spins a tale about his fleeting encounter with the "loup garou," the fabled half-dog, half-man predator of Cajun legend.

Easing a pirogue down a hidden bayou one evening, ,Barnes glimpsed a dark mass moving swiftly from the water into the palmettos along the shore. For an instant, he thought he had scared up one of Barataria's deep-marsh Russian boar...