Tsavo maneaters

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The Tsavo Man-Eaters on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.
The Tsavo Man-Eaters on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

The Tsavo maneaters were a pair of man-eating male lions responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, from March through December 1898.

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[edit] History

In March 1898, during the building of the Kenya-Uganda Railway, Engr. Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson led the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. During the construction period, many Indian railway workers were killed by two maneless male lions, which dragged men from their tents at night and devoured them. The workers built bomas (thorn fences) around their camp to keep the maneaters out; but the maneaters were able to crawl through. Patterson set traps and tried several times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. After repeated unsuccessful endeavors, he finally shot the first lion on 9 December, 1898. Three weeks later, the second beast was found and killed. By that point, the maneaters had supposedly killed 135 workers. According to Patterson's calculations, though, railway records only recorded 28 deaths, however Patterson later said in a speech of his account that 28 Indians were killed, as well as a large number of native Africans, so the total number is closer to 135.[1] A number of these deaths were unrecorded locals.[2]

After two-and-a-half decades as Patterson's floor rugs, the lions' skins were sold to the Chicago Field Museum in 1924 for a sum of $5,000 US. The lions were then reconstructed and are now on permanent display along with the original skulls, although the lion recreations are smaller than their original size because the skins had been cut and used as rugs for twenty-six years in Patterson’s home, leaving them in relatively poor condition and not conducive to full-size reconstruction.

Patterson's accounts were published in his 1907 book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.

[edit] Possible causes of "man-eating" behavior

Theories for the 'man-eating behavior' of lions have been thoroughly reviewed by Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske (2001). Their discussions include the following:

  • An outbreak of rinderpest disease had decimated the lions' usual prey, forcing them to find alternative food sources.
  • The Tsavo lions may have been been accustomed to finding dead humans at the Tsavo River crossing. Slave caravans bound for Zanzibar routinely crossed the river there.

It should be noted that to date, there has been no evidence indicating that broken teeth "force the lions to take on easier, slower, and more fragile prey".

[edit] Popular culture references

Kerbis Peterhans, J.C., C.M. Kusimba, T.P. Gnoske, S. Andanje,& B.D. Patterson (1998). Man-eaters of Tsavo rediscovered after 100 years, an infamous ‘lions den’, rekindles some old questions. Nat.Hist.107(9):12-14.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patterson, Bruce D. (2004). The Lions of Tsavo : Exploring the Legacy of Africa's Notorious Man-Eaters. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071363335. 
  2. ^ Gnoske, Thomas and Julian Kerbis Peterhans (2003). "Field Museum uncovers evidence behind man-eating; revises legend of its infamous man-eating lions". Journal of East African Natural History. 

1) Kerbis Peterhans, J.C. and T.P. Gnoske (2001). The science of 'Man-eating' among lions (Panthera leo) with a reconstruction of the natural history of the "Man-eaters of Tsavo, Journal of East African Natural History 90:1-40.

2) Gnoske, T.P., G. Celesia, and J.C. Kerbis Peterhans, (2006). Dissociation between mane development and sexual maturity in lions (Panthera leo): Solution to the Tsavo Riddle? J of Zoology (London) 268(4): 1-10.

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