What drove the fearsome Tsavo lions to feast on 35 humans? Terrible toothache
THEY were the beasts that literally stopped the British Empire in its tracks.
A pair of Tsavo lions devoured at least 35 men building a railway across Kenya in the 19th century, dubbed ‘the lunatic line’ because it was so expensive.
Mystery surrounds why the lions became maneaters, as they normally prefer wildebeest, antelope or giraffe to human. But now scientists believe they have found the unusual reason – toothache.
A study of the jaws and skulls of the lions, which have been preserved, show one had a severe abscess. This would have meant it was less well-equipped to hunt larger animals, unable to bite down hard enough on large prey.
The lions struck on the route of the Lake Victoria to Mombasa railway line in 1898, hunting down workers staying at a campsite.
‘They are much easier to catch’
Reports from the time described the beasts snatching men from their tents and ‘crunching’ their bones.
Previous theories as to why the lions turned on humans included an outbreak of a disease called rinderpest, which killed off local antelope.
Contemporary accounts recorded that the lions killed as many as 135 workers – although a chemical analysis of the animals’ bones suggests that they only ate around 35.
Larisa DeSantis, an environmental scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said: ‘Our results suggest that preying on people was not the lions’ last resort, rather, it was simply the easiest solution to a problem that they confronted.’
She and Bruce Patterson, of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, compared the teeth of the maneating Tsavo lions – so-called because they live around Kenya’s Tsavo River – with those of a lion from Zambia which ate six humans in 1991 and also had dental problems. Dr DeSantis said: ‘Despite contemporary reports of the sound of the lions crunching on the bones of their victims...the Tsavo lions’ teeth do not show wear patterns consistent with eating bones.’
The lion which ate the most humans – as established by tests on its bones and fur – had a hugely painful root-tip abscess on one of its canines. Dr Patterson said: ‘Lions normally use their jaws to grab prey like zebras and buffalos and suffocate them. This lion would have been challenged to subdue and kill large struggling prey; humans are so much easier to catch.’
The other Tsavo lion, which had healthier teeth, may have learned to attack humans from its companion.
Claims that the pair ate 135 humans were made by Irish-born Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson – who killed the lions – in his 1907 book The Maneaters of Tsavo.