Man-eaters of Tsavo

[DavidPT40]

I just finished reading the man-eaters section of Col. John Patterson's book. For those of you that don't know, Patterson was a railway engineer tasked with building a rail line and bridge in Africa in 1898. He had around 5000 African and Indian workers at his disposal. Somehow, two local lions developed a taste for human flesh, and ended up eating well over a hundred railway workers.

Basically what the lions would do is roam to various camps of the workers each night, jump over the thorn fence that surrounded it, and eat either one or two workers per night. The lions got so brazen as to eat the victims a mere 30 yards outside the camp. It was far too dark, and too dangerous to venture outside of the camps to try to kill the lions in the middle of the night. No flashlights in those days I'm afraid.

I found it strange that neither native african technology, nor (for a while) modern technology would stop the lions. Massive thorn bush fences, bomas, didn't stop the lions. They would jump over, and drag their victims through them. Col. Pattersons .303 rifle wouldn't penetrate very far into the lions' bodies, a fact he didn't find out until a wounded lion began charging him. He shot one lion at less than twelve feet with both barrels of his shotgun, and the lion still continued to eat the workers.

Finally though, the lions were killed. Each one was nearly ten feet long, and did not have a mane. Originally thought to be a sign of poor fitness, maneless lions are now known to suffer hair loss due to very high testosterone levels, which can also account for their aggressiveness. The partial remains, which have been converted from rugs to full taxidermy mounts, can be seen at the Chicago Field Museum. Unfortunately they are not full size.

I'm almost as impressed with Col. Patterson as I am with the story of man-eating lions. Patterson was able to handle all different types of situations with a calm demeanor, even though he was nearly killed by lions, railcart accidents, and worker rebellions. Though it strikes me as kind of strange that he keeps referring to the 'amusing incidents' where lions either tried to eat, or lightly mauled people. Maybe thats just the wording of the early 20th century. He repeatedly mentioned being able to hear the lions break and crack the bones of their victims as they ate them outside the camps. And also of finding the bodies licked clean of their skin. Apparently the lions liked to drink human blood too.


Check out the book if you get a chance. The first few paragraphs start a bit slow, but it gets into the action very quickly.

http://robroy.dyndns.info/tsavo/tsavo.html

 

[Spratman]

Thanks for the recommendation. If you liked this book, check out Man-eaters of Kumaon. This guy definitely had brass balls!

Also, Death In The Long Grass by Peter Capstick.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

The movie stars Kurt Russell. It's called the Ghost and the Darkness.

Naturally the book is better, but it is a good movie.

TwoBit

 

[DavidPT40]

Hehe the movie stars Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas

 

[Beach_Bunny]

Wow that seems like a great book, its going to be on my next amazon order!

 

[Spratman]

I picked up a paperback copy at B&N yesterday. Looking forward to reading it.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I can personally vouch for that testosterone hair loss thing.



Jeff The Lion

 

[MSilvia]

I was in the western part of Tsavo a couple of years ago, and it isn't at all hard to imagine what it was like back then. The railroad is still there, and uses the same bridges and trestles that Patterson and his workers built.

They still have a problem with lion attacks today too, although recent attacks tend to be from old or infirm lions who target humans (on the outskirts of the reserve, or at the Mzima springs) as relatively easy prey. I've heard speculation that the lions Patterson had to deal with were of that sort, but his accounts of the situation don't lead me to that conclusion.

Lions are clever, and definately not to be underestimated. I spent some time with the Maasai while I was in Kenya as well, and no topic I mentioned so suddenly changed the tone of conversation to dead seriousness as did lions.

 

[Spratman]

Agreed. Nearly everything I've read about "man-eaters" proved that they were debilitated in some manner. Most had broken incisors and no longer could kill in their normal methods. While I'm sure that there are lazy lions out there that find easy snacking on humans, they still are driven to the hunt.

Must have been cool hanging out with the Massai. Probably have some pretty good war stories, eh?

 

[DavidPT40]

Supposedly scientists found abscesses on both of the lions jaws when they examined them a few years back. But how can a lion, which is in so much pain that it cant hunt its normal prey, drag humans over a 15 foot thorn fence and then crack through their bones loud enough that everyone can hear?

My thoughts: Maybe the lions had abscesses on their teeth, but it wasn't effecting them. The lions found easy prey, and they had already become accoustomed to human flesh from eating deceased workers (whom died of natural causes). I think these lions were healthy and vicious. Sick lions may turn to eating humans, but healthy lions may also.