Prometheus 6

Notorious 'man-eating' lions of Tsavo likely ate about 35 people -- not 135, scientists say

The legendary "man-eating lions of Tsavo" that terrorized a railroad camp in Kenya more than a century ago likely consumed about 35 people--far fewer than popular estimates of 135 victims, according to a new analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The study also yields surprises about the predatory behavior of lions.

Despite the notoriety of the attacks--the harrowing nine-month saga has been the subject of three Hollywood films, and the lions remain a popular exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago--the number of victims has been a matter of dispute. The new study, "Cooperation and Individuality Among Man-Eating Lions," appears in the Nov. 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research utilized a sophisticated stable-isotope analysis to investigate this vexing question.

By analyzing samples of the hair and bone of the lions, researchers were able to estimate that one lion likely ate 11 humans and the other consumed 24 people during the animals' final nine months. Both lions were shot and killed in December 1898 by Lt. Col. John H. Patterson, a British officer and engineer hired to restore safety in the region. For years after, Patterson, who gained great notoriety for the feat, claimed the lions had killed 135 people--far more than the Ugandan Railway Company's estimate of 28 victims.

"This has been a historical puzzle for years, and the discrepancy is now finally being addressed," said Nathaniel J. Dominy, an associate professor of anthropology at UCSC. "We can imagine that the railroad company might have had reasons to want to minimize the number of victims, and Patterson might have had reasons to inflate the number. So who do you trust? We're removing all those factors and getting down to data."