By Frank James

Some people will no doubt be disappointed to learn that the two man-eating Lions of Tsavo in Kenya, long on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, didn't eat as many people as their reputations suggested, something like 35 compared with 135 people.

Tsavo lions.

The lions of Tsavo which once dined on humans though not as many as once thought. ( The Field Museum)

But 35 is still a lot of people and it seems like the lions still have every right to be considered as man-eating as ever.

Of course, humans got the last laugh, as evidenced by the fact that the lions have been stuffed and staring out at visitors from a display case in Chicago for the last 80 years.

What's fascinating is how scientists came to the new estimate, by examining isotopes in the fur and bones of the animals.

The Chicago Tribune has the story. An excerpt:

For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been one of the Field Museum's top tourist draws.
Now a study released Monday suggests the Tsavo lions' taste for human flesh may have been exaggerated.
According to the man who finally caught them in 1898, the two maneless Kenyan lions munched their way through as many as 135 people before they were shot, skinned, sold, stuffed and put on display in Chicago.
The story of how they preyed on a terrified camp of imperial British railroad workers for nine months captivated museum-goers for decades and inspired a 1996 movie with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, "The Ghost and the Darkness."
But after analyzing fragments of the lions' bones and fur, scientists at the University of California in Santa Cruz have determined that the true number of humans eaten by the lions was likely closer to 35.
By comparing isotopes in the lions' samples with their normal prey of zebra, wildebeest and buffalo, with other lions, and with the remains of 19th century Kenyans, the scientists estimated that one of the lions ate 24 humans, while the other ate 11.
"The possible range is between 4 and 72 humans, but 35 is most likely," said Justin Yeakel, one of the study's authors.

Update: All Things Considered host Robert Siegel on Monday spoke with Yeakel who explained how the scientists made their determination that the lions feasted on significantly fewer humans than previously thought.

categories: Science

12:28 - November 2, 2009

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