Tsavo maneaters

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

In March of 1898, during the building of the Uganda Railway, engineer Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson led the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. During the construction period, many railway workers were killed by two maneless male lions, which dragged men from their tents at night.

The workers built bomas (thorn fences) around their camp to keep the lions out; however, the lions 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 killed the first lion on 9th December, 1898, and the second three weeks later. By that point, the lions had killed nearly 140 workers.

There is speculation that the lions in the region had developed a taste for humans as a result of the slave trade. Another theory suggests that a plague during the period had decimated the lions' usual prey, forcing them to find alternative food sources. Upon examining the skulls and jaws of the lions in the 1990s, some scientists concluded that the two were suffering from abcesses in their gums, and were in too much pain to hunt tougher animals. This theory was in fact discussed on the National Geographic Channel explaining how abcesses in the gums force the lions to take on easier prey, both "slower and more fragile". There has also been a confirmed link to the man eater attacks in Tanzania. Both lions were maneless and had abcesses in the gums. In 2000 a proposal was submitted to the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History that the attacks could be related to the lions scavenging the bodies of improperly buried railroad workers. Museum staff made a comprehensive review of Patterson's journals in which he recorded that many burial mounds, made by piling stones over bodies, had been disturbed and the bodies eaten. Based on this evidence it is most likely that the two bachelor males had acquired a taste for humans by scavenging the graves of deceased railroad workers, eventually modifying their feeding behavior to the snatching of sleeping workers from their tents. This explanation is now included in the Museum's display.

After 26 years as Patterson's floor rugs, the lions' skins were sold to the Chicago Field Museum for a sum of $5,000 US. They are currently on display there. It should be noted that the skins on display at the museum do not reflect the full size of the animals after being reassembled.

Patterson's accounts were published in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and later dramatized in the movies Bwana Devil and The Ghost and the Darkness.

[edit] Anomalies

The Tsavo maneaters were maneless male lions, and were of above average size. Patterson claimed that the lions were able to withstand several shots from his rifle. Tsavo Lions are generally maneless and also larger and more aggresive than lions from other regions.