https://www.wsj.com/science/biology/tsavo-man-eating-lions-0cdb3ebe?mod=series_scienceshorts
Did These Notorious Lions Really Eat People?
Scientists used DNA sequencing to analyze the hair fragments found in the canine teeth of the infamous ‘Tsavo man-eaters’
Dominique MosbergenOct. 11, 2024 at 11:00 am ET
Wildebeest, zebra and humans? That’s the diet scientists say filled the bellies of two infamously bloodthirsty
lions who once terrorized railroad workers.
The “Tsavo man-eaters,” as the male African lions are known, have been mythologized in books and Hollywood movies. Historical accounts have described how they ate dozens of people who worked on the Kenya-Uganda railroad in the 1890s. Their remains are displayed in a Chicago museum. Now
DNA sequencing of hair fragments found lodged in their canine teeth confirms the lions’ penchant for eating humans.
When researchers analyzed the hairs, they found the remains of at least one person, as well as
giraffe, oryx, waterbuck, zebra and wildebeest, according to a study published Friday in the journal Current Biology. The researchers also studied some hairs under a microscope, and confirmed the presence of human, zebra and waterbuck remains, among other animals.
The hairs were deeply embedded in the teeth and were so compacted, their consistency resembled that of wood. Researchers said the hairs’ location in the teeth plus the patterns of DNA damage that were detected in them confirmed their age and provenance.
It is the first time that DNA sequencing has been used to study hairs found in the teeth of animals who lived long ago, the researchers said. The same technique could be used to understand the diets and behaviors of other historic carnivores including extinct ones, said study co-author Ripan Malhi.
“It opens up a whole new area of inquiry into the past,” said Malhi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Researchers analyzed hair fragments found deeply embedded in the lions’ teeth. Photo: Field Museum
The Tsavo man-eaters were killed in 1898 by John Henry Patterson, a British Army officer who oversaw the building of a railroad bridge over
Kenya’s Tsavo River. The lions—who were maneless and massive, each measuring almost 10 feet long—had killed many railroad workers over a nine-month period. Patterson estimated that at least 28 railroad workers and an untold number of locals were eaten. Researchers say they don’t know the exact number of people killed but evidence points to a few dozen.
Lions don’t usually eat people. But necessity or injury may have driven the Tsavo man-eaters to do so. A viral disease had wiped out many prey species, said Thomas Gnoske, a study co-author and chief preparer of specimens at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, which houses the Tsavo lions’ remains.
Others think a broken tooth may have driven one of the lions to start hunting people because humans are easier to kill than the large animals they usually eat.
In a memoir detailing the lions’ reign of terror, Patterson described hearing the animals devour a worker right outside his camp: “I could plainly hear them crunching the bones, and the sound of their dreadful purring filled the air and rang in my ears for days afterwards.”
His book inspired several films, including “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a 1996 movie starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas.
Patterson used the lions’ skins and skulls as rugs before selling them for $5,000 to the Field Museum, which used the skins to create taxidermy specimens. The lions remain a popular attraction at the museum.
Bruce Patterson, a former curator of
mammals at the museum with no relation to the British officer, said it was incredible that a pair of rugs has been such a rich source of information.
“Because of their interesting history, we’ve thrown all kinds of scientific techniques at them,” he said.
Write to Dominique Mosbergen at
dominique.mosbergen@wsj.com
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