Man Eating Lions Dine On Eco-Tourists

This Is London- Evening Standard ^ | 13 February 2003 | John Von Radowitz

[joesnuffy]

Man-eating lions dine on ecotourists By John Von Radowitz, Evening Standard 13 February 2003

Ecotourists are helping nature in an unexpected way - by becoming "fast food of the bush" for man-eating lions, it was claimed today.

Reports of lions eating humans are increasing in Africa, and one reason may be more tourists camping on the big cats' doorstep.

Craig Packer, of Minnesota University, told New Scientist magazine: "There have been a fair number of attacks on humans in the last couple of years, including some in South African camps.

"The problem is, there is a growing number of camps putting people in the bush right next to lions."

Separate research casts doubt on the theory that lions get a taste for human flesh only when illness or injury means they cannot hunt faster four-legged prey.

Zoologist Bruce Patterson examined the bones of 23 maneaters in Kenya. Most were healthy young male lions. He believes males expelled from prides meet more humans on their travels. "It may all be too much for a lion to resist," he said.

The most famous attack on humans occurred in 1898 when two lions terrorised railway workers building a bridge over Kenya's Tsavo River, killing and eating nearly 30 people.

[joesnuffy]

After eating several French and German ecotourists the Lions declared "Tastes just like chicken with two left wings"

[finnman69]

When I went on Safari in Kenya, a couple of nights in the Masai Mara scred the hell out of me. I could hear the lions screaming right out side my tent. Our tent was very close to a flimsy electric fence.

They know where the food is.

[ProudEagle]

Thanks for the laugh this morning. I needed that. There is poetic justice in the world after all. Now, if we could just arrange a PETA trip...

[EggsAckley]

Obviously someone forgot the "please don't feed the lions" signs.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Now if we can get whales to attack Greenpeace activists and get trees to fall on tree huggers we'll get a little peace.

[Destructor]

I didn't realize that Lions ate s**t!

[DainBramage]

""The lions reportedly lick their rears afterwards to get the taste out of their mouths"

[Conspiracy Guy]

Many animals eat S**t to get the democrat taste out of their mouths

[sheltonmac]

The most famous attack on humans occurred in 1898 when two lions terrorised railway workers building a bridge over Kenya's Tsavo River, killing and eating nearly 30 people.

You can read about that incident in The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, by Col. J. H. Patterson. That book inspired the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. It is, in my opinion, one of the best "man vs. nature" movies ever made.

[StriperSniper]

Related?;-)

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Damn ..... misread title .... thought it said Euro-tourists.

[expatpat]

The eco-tourists are generally good eating, I'm told. Their flesh is nice and tender, since few of them have ever done any real work.

[Thebaddog]

It seems like a harsh way to make a liberal into a Republican. If they survive.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I love that movie. I suspect the critics didn't like it because it made nature look a little too natural...

[Mr. Jeeves]

The most famous attack on humans occurred in 1898 when two lions terrorised railway workers building a bridge over Kenya's Tsavo River, killing and eating nearly 30 people.

If the recent National Geographic article is correct, it was more like 130.

[Constitution Day]

There's a new book about the man-eating lions of Tsavo called The Ghosts of Tsavo, by Philip Caputo.
I just started reading it.

[Constitution Day]

Same thing happened to my wife and I in South Africa, but we were in a hut with open (screened) windows.

It was quite something to realize we were probably being considered as a midnight snack.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

There was a joke I read recently... can't remember where. "I've started a vegetarian diet. Problem is, they're harder to catch than cows and the meat is stringier."

[Luna]

The most famous attack on humans occurred in 1898 when two lions terrorised railway workers building a bridge over Kenya's Tsavo River, killing and eating nearly 30 people.

You can read about that incident in The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, by Col. J. H. Patterson. That book inspired the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. It is, in my opinion, one of the best "man vs. nature" movies ever made.

That was a very good book. I highly recommend the writings of Jim Corbett, who killed man-eating tigers in India in the early decades of the 20th century. Man-Eaters of Kumoan and The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag are two of his books that I have read. Extremely fascinating reading.

[gridlock]

My father and I once went camping with a Kenyan man of our aquaintance in Masai Mara for a week. When we got back home, his wife told us how happy she was that we were taking her husband out into the bush, because he had never been outside Nairobi all his life. She had assumed that since we were a couple of outdoors American types, we knew all about camping in the bush.

Turns out, we had done every possible thing wrong. Somehow we managed to survive, though. Lots of lions.

A million stories from that trip. All of them best told over a nice tall warm Tusker (and none of that Export stuff!).