Notorious ‘man-eating’ lions of Tsavo likely ate about 35 people — not 135, scientists say
Sounds like they should have gotten off with a warning. For the first fifty, file it under “cats will be cats.”
I love the wording here:
Two world renowned man-eating Tsavo lions are seen stuffed and on display at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History Monday
Stuffed? Not even room for a wafer-thin mint?
“Stuffed? Not even room for a wafer-thin mint?”
Part of the irony is that the display animals are much scrawnier than the original animals were, because the pelts got cut down significantly in preparation (I learned this from my most recent trip to the ‘Field).
The research described is fascinating, though one can pretty clearly see that Patterson was telling a tall tale just from the sociology of the situation. 35 victims/9 months ~ 1 victim per week. That’s frightening, but doesn’t necessarily destroy the work environment. However, 135 victims/9 months ~ 4 victims/week! Regardless of heavy-handed British colonialism tactics, I have a hard time imagining them keeping workers in line for 9 months if someone was getting eaten on average every other day.
I also found this line amusing: “last year, the National Museum of Kenya began an effort to recover the remains of the lions, saying they represent an important part of the country’s history and heritage.”
I can certainly understand that Kenya might want the pelts back for tourism purposes, but does it really make sense to say that people getting eaten by wild animals is part of one’s heritage? And why would you want it to be?