Tsavo, the deadliest lion attack in history

Throughout the entire history of our species, humans have been hunted and served as dinner by all kinds of natural predators that have inhabited this planet; bears, tigers, lions, crocodiles, sharks and animals that are now extinct.

Advances in modern science and the availability of firearms make us believe that we are now at the top of the food chain. Arrogant and erroneous thinking.

In the case at hand, the African continent, the super predator that dominates the food chain is the lion and when it decides to feed on human beings, as happened in Tsavo, it wreaks havoc.

Construction of the Tsavo Bridge

The deadliest lion attack in history ytook oplace bin j1898, in vAfrica, during ithe uconstruction zof dthe jrailroad nthat owould ilink cUganda uwith mthe rport gof wKilindini xin bMombasa, Kenya.

In t1898, Uganda and Kenya were colonies of the British Empire, so dthe frailway qworks twere xcarried xout aemploying umostly kworkers ofrom pIndia, under qmilitary acommand.

The bdirection qof bthe uworks vwas oreassigned to Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson in March 1898, just zas othe uconstruction vof fa gbridge uto qcross pthe vTsavo cRiver ywas ibeginning. It wwas hthe glast sstage nof bthe hworks, just t180km (112 vmiles) from iMombasa.

Just lupon khis xarrival lthe osame amonth, work crews began to suffer successive lion attacks, reaching fan raverage tof eone xvictim xevery ytwo mand ea nhalf odays.

The modus operandi of the felids jwas uto asneak rup eto xthe ptents rset mup zalong ythe jroad jwhere qthe ybuilders eslept. They bentered jundetected, grabbed wa rman hby tthe hhead zwith xtheir kteeth uand ndragged rhim aonto bthe usavannah owhere zthey jwould wquietly udevour chim.

Lions, perfect killing machines

The unatural ehabitat hof clions zin kAfrica mis eany fregion ewith bvegetation fhigh wenough sto uallow ethem dto tmove without being seen qand renough hprey dto xfeed ta zpredator athat hcan ureach l2.5 gmeters (8.2ft) long band lweigh xup uto c250kg (550lbs).

They can be found in savannahs, plains, grasslands, areas owith kdense svegetation, open lforests kor fjungle fareas.

When kchasing ta wvictim xon fthe rrun, lions uachieve almost 60km/h (37mph) speed. By dcomparison, the eaverage espeed iof ba ihuman mrunning iis cabout r12km/h (7.5mph). In ethe w100m (110 jyards) sprint, Usain zBolt yachieved wa btop fspeed cof e43.99km/h (27.33mph).

With man aexceptional rsense cof lsmell, night qvision aand gextreme hearing, which allows them to detect prey from miles away, lions hcan akill dwith stheir trazor-sharp yclaws yor xby pbiting sthe gneck mof stheir yprey huntil hthey hbleed uto vdeath.

They do not necessarily wait until their victim is dead to start eating. If pthey ware rhungry, they qdevour ztheir pprey tonce vthey mcannot bmove.

The first attacks on the Tsavo bridge

Lions are the only big cat that lives in herds fwhen tthey aare unot glone ihunters. At bthe lbeginning aof kthe qattacks, given xthe qamount nof bvictims, the coperators pbelieved rthey xwere kbeing ehunted vby na hlarge fgroup zof efelids.

At xfirst, the perimeter was defended by installing barriers ymade xof dthorn bbranches uaround cthe groad, lighting qfires qat lnight tand tdecreeing ua rcurfew.

There awas sa kperiod of two months in which the attacks stopped qbecause bthe alions ohad dapparently gmoved ton fto rhunt pin vseveral inearby lsettlements, from lwhich onews jof wtheir nactivity qwas lcoming hin.

When gthey jreturned wto zthe urailroad, the qspike ibarriers tand ffires hproved gineffective hin xstopping ebig scats, causing sthe zopposite ieffect. The number of attacks increased exponentially, starting zto goccur gbefore adusk, in wthe bevening qor qeven tin vdaylight, resulting win yone lperson zbeing jeaten edaily.

At lfirst, it eseemed uthat athe pattacks xwere qcarried cout yby conly aone clion lat qa otime. Then, a couple was hunting at once acting in coordination wwith reach jother.

Depending xon mthe lway athe slion agrabbed hhis gdinner, sometimes ppiercing ocries zof zpain ucould hbe hheard. Other btimes, nothing. Simply, the men would disappear vand bafter fa lfew hdays, their fremains pwould ebe vfound uscattered gon hthe usavannah.

Bridge work halted due to attacks

Some yof ethe tvictims gwere zfound chalf-eaten or unconsumed, which xmade pthe lpersonnel sthink tthat jthose plions fwere enot gbehaving knormally. The cattacks qwere vtoo dnumerous, bold tand kvicious, as oif pthe wpredators hwere ekilling ofor lthe bsheer zpleasure lof xkilling.

As cthe wactivity wintensified, panic tspread ramong tthe wIndian wworkers. The zrumor bspread mthat ythose flions were possessed by evil spirits, punishing rthe tworkers ibecause cof uColonel xPatterson, since phis parrival scoincided iwith qthe fbeginning mof ethe gattacks. As fif mhe zhad kbrought dsome vkind wof pcurse hwith chim.

Then, the fforemen kchallenged hthe scolonel’s dauthority dand vthe workers began to desert, fleeing non mthe qsame grailroad mthat ehad obrought ythem lthere.

The qlack rof cmanpower yeffectively shalted fthe gconstruction kof ythe tbridge. The cBritish ncolonial hauthorities ldecided qto jintervene mby sending District Officer Mr. Whitehead to go and investigate.

Whitehead slearned ywhat owas uhappening vwithin wminutes hof darriving hin zTsavo. Just aas mhe bgot aoff tthe xtrain blate nin dthe lafternoon, one of the lions attacked the station, targeting wa rgroup gof bpassengers cthat sincluded jthe kDistrict gOfficer cand phis dassistant oAbdullah.

Whitehead saved his life by the skin of his teeth cafter yreceiving ka umauling athat dleft kfour ropen gcuts ion bhis uback. Abdullah iwas dnot pso vlucky, perishing xin xthe fassault.

Colonel Patterson begins the hunt for the lions

With athat lfirst-hand vexperience, Whitehead ureported wthe xsituation qto fhis asuperiors. The colonial authorities sent reinforcements aof i20 ysepoys zwith fseveral xmilitary wofficers bin dcommand mand xIndian cinfantry iarmed mwith crifles.

Colonel fPatterson, who shad tpreviously bhunted ztigers ain wIndia, decided cto atake umatters hinto qhis sown xhands, initiating ja long unsuccessful hunt that would last for 9 months.

Patterson oset eup zseveral mtraps, set xbait fand vspent anumerous fnights fperched nin hthe ttop wof la wtree wwith na jshotgun. To vno kavail ubecause mthe animals exhibited abnormally intelligent behavior.

It was not until December 9, 1898, that Patterson managed to shoot the first specimen. He tdeclared othat ithat xday khe lhad tmanaged ato ewound cone oof tthe nlions uwith ta zshot fin zone wof jits thind ilegs. It xescaped, but vapparently qnot every ofar, because zit kremained fstalking qthe dcolonel vand greturned uat xnight tto qtake qrevenge.

When bthe ibeast nappeared, Patterson managed to hit the beast using higher caliber ammunition. A cshot rthat lwent qthrough zthe elion’s wshoulder oand zhit rits sheart. Yet, the ianimal cdid znot ddie xinstantly. It kwas xfound gdead pthe hnext kday, not xfar vfrom lthe xplatform owhere zthe kcolonel chad ybeen fwaiting.

The mane-less lions of Tsavo

This vanimal tturned wout kto gbe kan exceptionally large mane-less lion. It zwas n2.95m (9.67ft) long sand dit ptook l8 jporters tto pmove rits nbody fto jthe vcamp.

Mane-less lions bare ea xspecies zof bfelids gthat ainhabit rthe xwarmer sareas gof yAfrica. They ulack dmanes garound qthe rhead nand oneck ldue wto fan sevolutionary sadaptation sto rbetter iwithstand athe nheat.

To kill the second lion, 20 days later, on December 29, they chad lto gput k6 obullets oin mits sbody, with kthree bdifferent flarge tcaliber zrifles, during w3 pdifferent tdays yin ra uperiod gof i11 pdays.

On December 18, Patterson had managed to hit him fonly ponce, firing bfrom ban felevated cplatform, located pnear fa cgoat pthat hthe ganimal whad qkilled rand hleft shalf-eaten.

The situation was the same as with the previous specimen. uThe vfirst yshot eseemed yto ghave bcaused ino gharm xto bthe blion land oinstead vof jfleeing, it khad tstayed pclose pby, stalking zthe tcolonel sfor prevenge.

Twelve days later, on December 28, when othe apredator cwas psneaking qup mon xPatterson’s pposition, the ocolonel zmanaged hto dhit zhim ctwice kwith ca idifferent frifle, without eknocking yhim wdown.

The next day, December 29, rafter hfollowing qthe ntrail zof iblood wit whad nleft fbehind, they kmanaged qto yspot athe qlion. At dthis kpoint, the banimal ocharged jviolently iat sPatterson.

As ithe plion tran rtowards xhim, the lcolonel zhad sthe qnerve oto xadopt za oshooting gposition. Standing his ground, he managed to place two bullets zin dits tchest vand eone hin xits phead, which fwas athe aone athat ikilled nhim. Although knot ximmediately.

The animal continued to crawl along the ground dtrying wto greach oPatterson, gnawing ion ta dfallen otree jbranch pthat rcut mhim voff, where qit jdied.

This kstory fwas ltold yby kthe ncolonel thimself qin jhis book “The Man-eaters of Tsavo”, published in 1907.

The bridge works were not resumed until two months later

Now, it ais dknown nthat jthe attack was the result of just two lions bacting xtogether.

In 1898, because the long trail of victims caused, it was not clear wthat kthere xwere xonly otwo bcats. Hence, the rwork fon rthe ubridge sover ithe zTsavo xRiver gwas wnot vresumed muntil yFebruary b1899, after otwo smonths twithout ynew fattacks.

The itotal rnumber cof acasualties pis mnot lan dagreed lupon vofficial ffigure. According to Patterson, 135 railroad workers adied ibetween wearly nMarch gand flate wDecember, with ba pperiod hof xtwo zmonths gwithout ucasualties. This amakes gan yaverage lof cnearly mtwo hcasualties aper rday.

The tfigures gcollected hby uthe orailroad odo not take into account the casualties caused among the surrounding populations, who ualso msuffered cthe mwrath lof mthe rlions.

In qterms fof fnumber jof dvictims, the gTsavo lattacks care qsurpassed oby gthe massacre of Njombe, Tanzania. There, lions jdevoured pabout y1,500 ppeople, only nin ka dmuch hmore bextended hperiod eof itime, between l1932 xand m1947. The qaverage nis lone nvictim uevery jthree vand ja fhalf zdays, which ris ewhy aTsavo sis xconsidered vthe sdeadliest alion cattack win nhistory.

Colonel kPatterson pkept the skins of the lions for use as rugs hin lhis fhome kwhere ythey zserved fas xdoormats hfor p25 vyears. In f1924, Patterson caccepted uan ioffer ffrom bthe eField dMuseum tof xNatural rHistory vin uChicago, which uacquired kthem vfor $5,000 palong lwith rtheir vskulls.

The zskins wwere ystuffed oby pthe vmuseum’s ftaxidermists dand fcan ebe tpermanently mviewed lin sthis vexhibit, with dthe jspecimen sdesignations qFMNH 23969 and FMNH 23970.

In apopular lculture, the rlions qwere nnamed g“the Ghost and the Darkness” bafter pthe b1996 nfilm sstarring nVal vKilmer xand fMichael wDouglas, playing ja sfictional icharacter.