The man eaters of Tsavo

The tale of the maneaters of Tsavo (area that is now Tsavo East and West National Park) has garnered an almost legendary status.It is a true story, however the details remain contestend and exagerrated claims make this story sound like a horror movie. The tale goes something like this:



There were a couple of maneless male lions (yes, male lions without the famous mane that surrounds the head - making them look a bit like stripeless tigers?) that stalked the railway construction project back in 1898.
Leiutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson of the British was in charge of the construction project, as at the time Kenya was a colony of Britain. The lions would stalk the campsite at night, grab a worker and drag them out to the bushes to devour them. This ofcourse did not go down well with the workers, most of whom were Indians. At first they attempted putting up thorn fences and lighting large bonfires, but to no avail. The determined predators were not afraid of the fires, and crawled throught the fences, and for nine months terrorized the workers. The fearful workers fled Tsavo and severely stalled the project.

The Tsavo maneaters on display at the Field
Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

Patterson took it upon himself to huntdown and kill the two lions. He set traps and ambushed the lions from a tree, and after several unsuccessful attempts, he shot one of the lions on December 9, 1898. Three weeks later the second lion was also shot and killed, finally allowing construction to continue.
The first lion measured 9 feet, 8 inches from nose to tail, and the carcass was carried by 8 men back to camp. Claims have been made that the two lions claimed up to 135 lives during thier reign of terror, but none have been proven.

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