The secret of attacks on people by lions from Tsavo is revealed. Mystery of the Ages Revealed
A FEW WORDS ABOUT PATTERSON'S BOOK "MAN-EATERS FROM TSAVO"
THE BOOK of the English engineer James Patterson gained international fame at the beginning of our century. It went through several editions and was translated into many European languages (it was not translated into Russian). The book "Cannibals from Tsavo" tells about the construction of the railway in East Africa. It contains incidentally essays on the nature and ethnography of Kenya and stories about the author's hunting adventures. However, it was not these, albeit vividly written, but still amateurish information that led to the wide popularity of the book. Its central core is the story of the struggle with two cannibal lions, who interrupted the construction of an important bridge and slowed down the entire construction of the road. It was this story of a great tragedy and outstanding human courage that made Patterson's book a document of a courageous struggle with nature, a document that has not lost its interest for subsequent generations, including our Soviet readers, who know how to appreciate resilience, courage and selfless work.
Therefore, from the entire book, only the chapters that tell about Patterson's struggle with man-eating lions were selected, all other parts were omitted as obsolete. Perhaps lovers of the history of African exploration and ethnography will complain about this choice and consider that the book should be translated in full. However, it seems to me that the interest of the dramatic central part of the book cannot be compared with the fragmentary and random observations of the author on the ethnography and nature of Kenya at the end of the last century. That is why in our collection for the general reader we have limited ourselves to chapters on the fight against man-eating lions.
The story "Cannibals of Tsavo" echoes the wonderful books written by Jim Corbett about Indian cannibal tigers written forty years later. The books involuntarily draw attention to the huge number of people who died from tigers and cannibal leopards, and the complete helplessness of the population in front of a terrible predator. Entire areas were abandoned by people, fairs were empty, life on the roads was dying down, logging was stopped. Patterson paints a very similar picture of the construction of the railroad. Only two man-eating lions appear in the construction area, and thousands of workers live in constant horror, work is disorganized and even completely interrupted. This similarity between the stories of Corbett and Patterson is not accidental. The construction of the railway was carried out by Indian workers brought to Africa. They preserved in Africa the characteristic features of the life of the Indian people, including the religious aversion to the killing of any animal. Passivity and submission to the predestination of fate are also characteristic of the main religions of India - Brahmin and Buddhist.
It is safe to say that under other conditions, man-eating animals could not be so rampant. Their life would be very short and the number of victims incomparably smaller. And it's not just the lack of firearms. If the engineer, Patterson, had not been here, instead of him, warriors from the Maasai tribe would have dealt with the cannibals with their spears.
So, two man-eating lions roamed a small piece of India, transferred to Africa, in full force of their Asian counterparts. But there is a significant difference between Jim Corbett and engineer James Patterson. Corbett was a born hunter, a native of India, and the places in which he hunted cannibals were familiar to him, like a room in his own home. This man, of whose unparalleled courage there can be no doubt, went out to fight against the cannibals, armed with an excellent knowledge of the jungle and the habits of animals, which gave him more than a quarter of a century of acquaintance with them.
Engineer Patterson took on the same task in a foreign country he barely knew, and his hunting experience was no match for Jim Corbett's. Of course, some experienced travelers will say, the tiger is more dangerous than the lion! The answer to this is that Patterson did not have such sophisticated weapons, electric lights and magnesium flashes as Corbett possessed. Young self-confidence and courage, and maybe even luck, saved the engineer Patterson and helped him emerge victorious. It is enough to read the exciting pages about his duty on a hastily knocked together low platform, in impenetrable darkness, one on one with a cannibal, to understand that this struggle was not always equal and that a clear advantage was on the side of cannibal lions.
I am convinced that our readers will take with interest this story of the great courage of a man who managed to save the lives of many ordinary people - Indian workers, whom he treated with unfailing respect, as well as his hunting companions - the indigenous people of Africa.
Professor I. A. Efremov
ARRIVAL TO CAVO
NOON March 1, 1898 found me aboard a ship entering the narrow and rather dangerous harbor of Mombasa, a port on the east coast of Africa. The city is located on the island of the same name, separated from the mainland by a very narrow strait, which forms the harbor. As our ship slowly turned around near the quaint old Portuguese fortress built more than three centuries ago, I was more and more amazed at the unusual beauty of the landscape that gradually unfolded before me. Contrary to expectations, everything around looked fresh and blooming. The ancient city basked in the sparkling rays of the sun, lazily reflected in the still sea; flat roofs and dazzling white walls of houses looked dreamily between the swaying trunks of slender coconut palms, huge baobabs and sprawling mango trees, and the dark green, densely forested hills and slopes of the mainland served as an expressive backdrop for this beautiful and unexpected picture for me.
Horror stories about cannibals, which are usually used to frighten children or adult cinematic masterpieces from Hollywood, are most often the fruit of natural human fear, rich imagination, or an attempt to “play on the nerves” of a particularly impressionable audience. But some of them are really based on real facts, in particular, like this story about the legendary killer lions in
"Crown of Creation" vs. "King of Beasts"
In 1898, England began construction of a bridge across the Tsavo River as part of the rail link between Kenya and Uganda. Thousands of Indian workers were brought in for this purpose, as well as local Africans. The project was led by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson: at the age of 32 he was already an experienced tiger hunter and had just arrived from service in India. The construction of the bridge began in March, and almost immediately the number of workers began to dwindle.
The reason for the disappearance of people was ... two adult lions! Predators approached the camp of workers and literally pulled them out of the tents, eating them alive. Despite the attempts of people to protect themselves with the help of fires and the erection of fences from thorny bushes, the number of victims of man-eating lions grew catastrophically.
During the 9 months of construction work on the Tsavo River, according to Patterson, about 135 people disappeared, while the Uganda Railway Company claimed only 28 missing. Predators that terrified people got nicknames Ghost and Darkness, for the locals they were the personification of the spirit that impedes the activities of whites in foreign territory. But what is the true clue to such a terrible and unnatural behavior of the Kenyan man-eating lions?
Killing is the only way to survive
Perhaps this story would have forever remained a legend, shrouded in rumors and mystical conjectures, if Patterson had not been able to shoot dangerous predators. Frightened to death, workers fled the bridge site by the hundreds, so the project was halted. It took Lieutenant Colonel Patterson more than one week to lure the lions into a trap: the first was killed by him on December 9, 1898, and the next only on December 29 (according to Patterson, he had to fire at least 10 bullets into him).
The killed animals impressed no less than the bloodthirstiness during life: the body length of each was almost 3 meters from the muzzle to the tip of the tail! It took the strength of 8 adult men to transport the carcass. It was also surprising that the lions were devoid of a mane, which is completely uncharacteristic for males. Animal skins have long served as a carpet in Patterson's house. In 1907, his book "Cannibals from Tsavo" was published. In 1924, Patterson sold the trophies to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Only in 2009 did scientists manage to reliably find out how many victims the "Kenyan cannibals". Using the method of isotope analysis of the bones and hair of lions, they found that the predators did eat human meat, but, however, not throughout their lives, but only a few months before death. The victims of one lion were approximately 24 people, the second - only 11. And most importantly, what became clear as a result of the study: it was not a mysterious magical force that pushed the animals to this, but quite understandable biological reasons.
Killer lions hunted people not because of their strength and bloodthirstiness, but on the contrary - from weakness and hopelessness. The drought that reigned in the savannah for several years deprived the predators of their natural food - herbivorous mammals, including buffaloes. In addition, a pair of man-eating lions were found to have jaw disorders and dental disease, injuries that prevented them from hunting stronger prey.
There is also a version that the cannibalism of Tsavo lions is genetically transmitted from generation to generation, because caravans of driven slaves passed in this region of Africa for a long time, whose bodies could well become habitual food for lion prides. In Kenya and Tanzania, to this day, cases of lion attacks on local residents are recorded.
The story of the Kenyan man-eating lions formed the basis of several films, the most popular of which is "Ghost and Darkness" 1996 starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas.
Going to Kenya, you should not be afraid, and you should not contact astrologers. An organized trip, accompanied by experienced ragger guides, makes scary situations almost impossible. However, every tourist should definitely be careful and strictly follow the rules of conduct on safaris, walks and camps.
Fear has big eyes, and by means of Hollywood cinema, as practice shows, they can be enlarged many times over. Opinion polls have shown that after the release of Steven Spielberg's film Jaws, the US population was gripped by the fear of being eaten by sharks. Respondents believed that this is one of the main reasons for the death of Americans, while in reality the chance of dying in the mouth of a shark is negligible.
The history of the Kenyan man-eating lions developed in approximately the same way. Several films contributed to making this story as scary as possible, including The Ghost and the Dark (1996) with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.
More than 100 years after those events, scientists have debunked the myth of formidable killers by analyzing their remains stored in the Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The results of the study are published this week Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Man-eating lions preyed on railroad workers in Kenya in 1898. They were killed by Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson of the British Army. He stated that in the nine months of his struggle with predators, they ate 135 people. However, the Ugandan Railway Company denied this information: its representatives believed that only 28 people were killed. Patterson donated the remains of the animals to the Chicago Museum in 1924 - before that, the skins of lions served as carpets in his house.
Modern research has shown that the railroad workers were more accurate in their estimates than the military.
In fact, the lions (who were called Ghost and Darkness in the film) ate about 35 people for two.
In order to get the result, the scientists conducted an isotope analysis of the remains of animals, in particular, the content of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the skins. The content of these elements reflects the diet of animals. For comparison, the content of these elements in the tissues of humans and modern Kenyan lions was also determined. The analysis was carried out both in bone tissues and in the animal's fur. Bone tissues provide information about the "averaged" diet throughout the life of the animal, and wool - "fingerprints" of the last few months of life.
Analyzing the data obtained, scientists confirmed that these lions began to actively feed on people only a few months before death - the ratio of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the tissues of their fur and bones was too different. This difference, as well as a comparison of these numbers with elemental analysis of tissues from modern lions and humans, allowed scientists to quantify the number of people eaten. One of the lions ate about 24 people, while the second - only 11. The error of the method used, however, is very large. Theoretically, the lower estimate of the number eaten is four, the upper estimate is 72. Anyway, this number is less than a hundred, and rumors about the large number of victims of deadly predators are clearly exaggerated. Scientists still stick to the number 35, as it is close to the official figures of the Uganda Railway Company. Despite the fact that the animals hunted together, they did not share prey, as can be seen from the different composition of the tissues of the two animals. Joint hunting is important for lions when attacking large animals, such as buffaloes. Man is too small and slow for a single lion to take him down.
Joint hunting for a man suggests that man-eating lions were not the best representatives of the breed.
They took up hunting people not from a good life, they were also not the strongest and most courageous animals. On the contrary, they were weaker and could no longer hunt the types of prey more familiar to them. In addition, the dry summer of that year devastated the savannas and reduced the number of herbivores that were a common food for lions.
Ghost and Dark also suffered from gum disease and teeth, and one of them had a broken jaw. All these circumstances prompted the lions to choose easy prey, which does not run far and is easier to chew - people.
Scientists seem to have unraveled the mystery of why the most famous "man-eating lions" in history fell in love with the taste of human flesh, even though 119 years have passed since they hunted people. Researchers may have discovered the reason why lions hunt bipedal predators.
Cannibals from Tsavo
Despite their considerable capabilities, lions very rarely kill people unless they are provoked. However, several members of this species have earned the nickname "cannibals" as they have begun to attack humans. Their victims were mostly women. 
When two lions began preying on workers who were building a railway in Tsavo, Kenya, they even attracted the attention of the British Parliament, not to mention popularity among the directors who made three films about them. 
Teeth analysis
When the lions were finally killed, their bodies were sent to the Field Museum in Chicago for preservation. Now scientists are again interested in the history of these animals. It turned out that one lion of the pair suffered from an infection that developed in the root of the canine. In addition to a bad mood caused by constant pain, this damage could make it difficult for the animal to hunt, scientists suspect. 
Lions usually use their fangs to grab prey such as zebras or wildebeest and suffocate them. However, it would be difficult for this lion to cope with large prey that fought for its life. People are much easier to catch.
The second killer lion had a broken tooth. While this probably didn't stop him from hunting, he may have started chasing people "for company" with his partner. An isotopic analysis of the fur of these lions shows that while humans made up about 30 percent of the first lion's diet in his final years, they made up only 13 percent of the second lion's diet. 
Reasons for hunting people
Dr. Bruce Peterson, Field Museum curator and author of the new study, has published his findings in Science Reports, which provide evidence that the Zambian lion that killed six people in 1991 also had serious dental problems. This suggests that dental problems may be a common reason lions prey on humans.
Previously, it was thought that lions may have preyed on humans due to severe drought, which reduced the number of wild prey. However, Patterson and the first co-author of the study, Dr. Larissa DeSantis of Vanderbilt University, found that the teeth of the Tsavo lions did not show signs of wear associated with chewing animal bones, as is usually the case when food supplies are low. 
Patterson says healthy lions rarely attack humans because they are smart and understand that humans can be dangerous. Zebras can deliver a fatal blow to lions, but if a predator does manage to catch one of them, the rest of the herd will not kill it out of revenge. People, as a rule, begin to take revenge. When lions prey on people, it most often happens on a moonless night, despite the fact that unarmed people would be easy prey in daylight.
The Tsavo man-eaters were two man-eating lions active in the area of the Tsavo River (modern Kenya) in 1898, during the construction of the Uganda Railway.
Story
In March 1898, construction began on a permanent bridge across the Tsavo River, a section of the Uganda Railway. Construction was led by John Henry Patterson. For more than nine months, from March to December, workers were attacked by two man-eating lions. Workers, trying to protect themselves from the lions, built fences of thorny bushes (boma) around the tents, but they did not help. Because of the attacks, hundreds of workers left Tsavo and construction was suspended. On December 9, 1898, Patterson managed to shoot the first lion. On December 29, the second lion was also killed.
Both lions differed from the others in that they did not have a mane, although they were males. The length of both lions from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail was about nine feet (three meters).
In 1907, Patterson's book The Man-eaters of Tsavo was published; a Russian translation of individual chapters was published in the almanac On Land and Sea, 1962. In 1924, Patterson sold the lion skins to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The lions were stuffed into stuffed animals, which are still exhibited in the museum.
On the number of victims, Patterson reported different information. In a 1907 book, he wrote that twenty-eight Indian workers were killed by lions, and the number of Africans killed is unknown. In a pamphlet written in 1925 for the Field Museum, he gave a different number of those killed - one hundred and thirty-five.
In 2007, a spokesman for the National Museum of Kenya stated that the remains of the lions should be returned to Kenya as they are an important part of Kenyan history. In 2009, Kenyan Minister of Culture and Heritage William Ole Ntimama made a similar statement.
Research
The museum keeps the lions under the numbers FMNH 23970 and FMNH 23969. In 2009, a team of scientists from the Field Museum and the University of California at Santa Cruz examined the isotopic composition of the bones and hair of lions. They found out that the first lion ate eleven people, and the second - twenty-four. One of the authors of the study, Field Museum curator Bruce Patterson (no relation to D. G. Patterson), stated: “The rather ridiculous statements that Colonel Patterson made in his book can now be largely refuted,” while another author, Associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Nathaniel Dominy, said: "Our evidence speaks of the number of people eaten, but not the number of people killed."
Possible reasons why lions became cannibals are as follows:
- An epidemic of rinderpest, which reduced the number of usual victims, which forced the lions to look for new prey;
- The habit of eating the corpses of people in the Tsavo region, through which many slave caravans passed from the hinterland to the Indian Ocean;
- Cremation of Indian workers, after which the lions rummaged through the remains.
- Dental problems that prevented lions from hunting normal prey.
To the cinema
Patterson's book became the basis for the films Bwana Devil (1952), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959) and Ghost and Darkness (1996). In the last film, Patterson was played by Val Kilmer, and the lions were named Ghost and Darkness.
