Man-eaters are able-bodied
The authors dispel the centuries-old yarn, championed by noted tiger slayer Jim Corbett, that man-eaters are aged or have damaged teeth, limiting them to a diet of slow-footed humans. Their review shows that problem lions, including man-eaters, are typically sub-adult or prime-ages males without documented injury. In fact the researchers have even used forensic techniques to analyze the last meals of the man-eaters. They discovered hairs from the prey of the lions, still embedded in their broken teeth 100 years later. The Tsavo lions are shown to have eaten 'normal' prey throughout their careers. Although the study is ongoing, no human hairs have been recovered amid the hundreds of hairs reviewed to date.
While broken limbs are certainly debilitating and may lead to man-eating, broken canine teeth do not appear to have the same consequences.
Factors contributing to Tsavo man-eating
Using historical accounts and Patterson's own unpublished journal, the authors reconstruct the Tsavo environment of the 1890's and point to other circumstances, also common to other notorious lion incidents, that are more likely to have contributed to this episode. Prominent among these is the depletion of their 'normal' prey. Between 1891 and 1893, rinderpest struck sub Saharan Africa with devastating results by decimating buffalo, one of the favored natural prey of lions in Tsavo. Although referring to other game, Patterson makes no reference to buffalo, eland, or local domestic cattle in his personal journal, suggesting that these bovine species had not yet recovered from the rinderpest outbreak of 5-7 years earlier.
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Contact: Greg Borzo
gborzo@fieldmuseum.org
312-665-7106
Field Museum
14-Jan-2003