TSAVO MAN-EATERS

Most man-eaters ranges from sharks to wolves and crocodiles to big cats. Of human deaths by big cats, many have been caused by lions in particular. What drives a lion to kill humans? Lack of prey is the main factor behind this occurrence. When lions cannot find food, they are forced to search over many miles, becoming desperate. They will often turn to livestock or humans for survival. Human activity is responsible for declining prey population with humans infringing on lion territory. Lions are running out of places to go. Humans are also easier prey to catch, which is appealing to older or sick lions. Some scientists claim that once a predator tastes human blood, they will develop a preference for it and begin to seek out people as prey. This theory could explain why some animals are repeat offenders.

In 1898 the British began the construction of a railway bridge over the river Sava in Kenya. In the next nine months the unfortunate railway workers became the target of two man-eating lions now known as brothers. These lions were huge over three metres long or 9.8 feet. As usual with lions from the Tsavo region they were maneless. First the two lions took the men out of their tents, dragged them to the bush, and devoured them at night but immediately they became so fearless that they wouldn't even pull their victims away and start feeding on their flesh just a few metres from the tents.

 Their size, cruelty, and cunning were so extraordinary that many natives thought that they weren't really lions but instead demons or perhaps the reincarnation of ancient local kings. The latter tried to repel British invaders. The belief that dead kings were reborn as lions were once common in East Africa. The locals then nicknamed the two man-eaters the ghost and the darkness and the workers were so scared of them that they fled kilometres away from Tsavo. The railway construction was stopped, no one wanted to become the next victim of the devil lions; In the end the chief engineer of the railway project John Henry Patterson decided that the only solution was to kill the man eaters. The lions almost killed him but eventually managed to gun down the first one in December 1989 during the encounter.

 Two weeks later he was able to shoot the second and by that time the lions had killed 140 people. Patterson also found the layer of the man eaters: A cave near the Tsavo riverbank which contained the remains of many human victims and pieces of clothing and ornaments. This cave still exists and although many bones have been excavated, it is said that there are still human remains many inside. Several experts have recently claimed that the lions ate only about 35% of their human victims but this doesn't mean they didn't kill many others like other man eaters they were often said to kill even if they weren't hungry.

Nowadays the Tsavo man eaters or rather their stuff first can be seen in the Chicago field museum however the Kenyan authorities have shown interest in building a museum entirely dedicated to them in which case of the ghost and darkness can return to Tsavo.

Away from the Tsavo, Changi Charlie was a lion with white fur and was not the only characteristic feature of Charlie but also had a noticeably shortened and tail. It used to hunt in the Changi district situated on the border of former Rhodesia now Zambia. In 1909, the lion came into the spotlight because of its evident taste for human meat. During its career the lion formed the group with two other males and attacked several African villages together. It is said that Charlie and its pals have eaten about 90 people. It was invincible: It would effectively avoid traps set by hunters it also managed to finagle the best shooters in the country. At some point good fortune left Charlie, it was shot from a pistol.

Osama between 2002 and 2004 in Tanzania, a lion with a meaningful name Osama was accused of killing over 50 people from 8 different villages. It killed men and women but was sometimes assisted by other lions during hunting. It was given its name not only because a terrorised people but also because of the fame caused by the killings.

At that time information about the African Osama was put on the 1st pages of Tanzanian newspapers; The animal was found and killed in April 2004, and it was suspected that over 3.5 years old lion hunted people because of a large abscess on one of his molars. However, this theory has poor grounds because the man-eating lion had perfectly healthy teeth yet it is believed that Osama's taste for human meat has come from his mother that also hunted people.