Tsavo maneaters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2008)
The Tsavo Man-Eaters on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

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

Contents

[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 (Tsavo 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. The exact number of people killed by the lions is unclear. Over the course of his life, Patterson gave several different figures, once claiming that there were as many as 135 victims.[1][2] Recent research (see below) indicates that the number was probably closer to 35.

Patterson writes in his account that he wounded the first lion with one bullet from a Martini-Enfield chambered in .303 caliber. This shot struck the lion in the hindquarters and it still escaped. Later, it returned at night and began stalking Patterson even as he attempted to hunt it. He shot it with a .303 Lee Enfield several times, tracked it the next morning, and found it dead. In all, he had shot it 5 times. The second lion was shot five times with a .303 Lee Enfield, and it still managed to get up and charge him in severely crippled condition, whereupon he shot it twice more with the Martini-Henry carbine, once in the chest, and once in the head, which killed it. He claimed it died gnawing on a fallen tree branch, still attempting to reach him.{ref>chapter IX The Death of the Second Lion, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and other East African Adventures'Italic text by Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, DSO publication date unknown as recorded on Amazon Kindle</ref>{Fact|date=January 2009}}

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 arrived at the museum in very poor condition. The lions were then reconstructed and are now on permanent display along with the original skulls. The mounted lions are smaller than the monstrous measurements Patterson reported, whether because he exaggerated their size in the field or because they had been trimmed to serve as trophy rugs in Patterson’s home.

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

[edit] Modern research

The two lion specimens in Chicago Field Museum are known as FMNH 23970 (killed on December 9) and FMNH 23969 (killed on December 29). Recent research has been made upon the isotopic signature analysis of Δ13C and Nitrogen-15 in their bone collagen and hair keratin. Using assumptions such that human victims contained 20 kg of consumable tissue and the different isotope signatures of human flesh to normal lion prey, this analysis suggests that FMNH 23969 ate the equivalent of 10.5 and that FMNH 23970 24.2 humans.[3] This suggest the lower number of 35 and that Patterson had exaggerated his claims.[4]

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

Theories for the 'man-eating behavior' of lions have been reviewed by Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske (2001) and Patterson (2004). Their discussions include the following:

  • An outbreak of rinderpest disease in 1898 decimated the lions' usual prey, forcing them to find alternative food sources.
  • The Tsavo lions may have been accustomed to finding dead humans at the Tsavo River crossing. Slave caravans bound for Zanzibar routinely crossed the river there.
  • "ritual invitation", or abbreviated cremation of Hindu railroad workers, invited scavenging by the lions.

An alternative argument indicates that the first lion had a severely damaged tooth that would have compromised its ability to kill natural prey. Evidence for this is presented in a series of peer-reviewed papers by Neiburger and Patterson (2000, 2001, 2002) and in Bruce Patterson's (2004) book.

[edit] Popular culture

Patterson's book was the basis of the movies Bwana Devil (1952) and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) ("The Ghost" and "The Darkness" were names given to the two man-eating lions).

[edit] Gallery

Tsavo 1.jpg
Tsavo 2.jpg

[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. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/fm-fmu011303.php. 
  3. ^ Yeakel JD, Patterson BD, Fox-Dobbs K, Okumura MM, Cerling TE, Moore JW, Koch PL, Dominy NJ. (2009). Cooperation and individuality among man-eating lions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106: 19040–19043. doi:10.1073/pnas.0905309106 PMID 19884504
  4. ^ Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-tsavo-lions-02-nov02,0,3222846.story. 
  • Neiburger, E.J. & B.D. Patterson. 2000. Man eating lions…a dental link. Journal of the American Association of Forensic Dentists 24(7-9):1-3.)
  • Neiburger, E.J. & B.D. Patterson. 2000. The man-eaters with bad teeth. New York State Dental Journal 66(10):26-29+cover.
  • 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.
  • Patterson, B.D., E.J. Neiburger & S.M. Kasiki. 2003. Tooth breakage and dental disease as causes of carnivore-human conflicts. Journal of Mammalogy 84(1):190-196.
  • Patterson, B.D. 2004. The lions of Tsavo: exploring the legacy of Africa’s notorious man-eaters. McGraw-Hill, New York, 231 pp.
  • Patterson, B.D., S.M. Kasiki, E. Selempo & R.W. Kays. 2004. Livestock predation by lions (Panthera leo) and other carnivores on ranches neighboring Tsavo National Parks, Kenya. Biological Conservation 119 (4):507-516
  • Patterson, B.D. 2005. Living with lions in Tsavo, or notes on managing man-eaters. Travel News & Lifestyle (East Africa) 129 (Feb 2005):28-31.
  • Dubach, J, B.D. Patterson, M.B. Briggs, K. Venzke, J. Flammand, P. Stander, L. Scheepers & R. Kays. 2005. Molecular genetic variation across the eastern and southern geographic range of the African lion, Panthera leo. Conservation Genetics 7:15-24.
  • Patterson, B.D., R.W. Kays, S.M. Kasiki & V.M. Sebestyen. 2006. Developmental effects of climate on the mane of the lion (Panthera leo). Journal of Mammalogy 87(2):193-200.
  • 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.
  • 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. Natural History 107(9):12-14.
  • Patterson, B.D. 2004. The lions of Tsavo: exploring the legacy of Africa’s notorious man-eaters. McGraw-Hill, New York, 231 pp.

[edit] Source

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Man-eating tigers
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_maneaters"
Languages