Lions developing a taste for humans

News in Science ^ | Jan 30 2003 | Danny Kingsley - ABC Science Online

[vannrox]

	Eating humans is a trait that can be learned (Pic: Melbourne Zoo)

Eating humans is learned behaviour passed down through generations of lions, suggests surprising new American research.

The study by Dr Julian Peterhans and Thomas Gnoske of The Field Museum in Chicago is published in the latest issue of the Journal of East African Natural History.

It originally began as an attempt to dispel a longstanding myth about a pair of lions in the museum's collection. Legend has it that in 1898, two lions killed 135 workers building a bridge near Tsavo, Kenya. The attack, over nine months, halted construction of a railroad between Lake Victoria and Mombasa.

The lions were hunted down and killed by Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson, an English engineer who went on to write a celebrated account of the incident in a book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo. The Tsavo lions were eventually shipped to the museum.

The two U.S. researchers found that the myth was partially true - but they also uncovered evidence that lions and other big cats have repeatedly resorted to eating humans in certain conditions, often man-made, and that they appear to pass on this behaviour down to their offspring.

"Lions are a social species, capable of transmitting a behavioural tradition from one generation to the next," said Peterhans, also an associate professor of natural science at Roosevelt University.

The duo conducted a comprehensive review of scientific literature, game department records, unpublished journals and museum specimens. They also tracked down Patterson's diaries, and found that the lions probably killed only 28 railroad workers.

The death toll increased to 135 over the years as the story grew in the telling. A Hollywood film of the incident, The Ghost and the Darkness, only added to the legend.

Gnoske and Peterhans uncovered a history of man-eating by lions. The Tsavo lions were killing people in the area for several years before construction started, and probably began by eating victims of an earlier outbreak of famine and smallpox.

Tsavo was on the slave route in the 19th century, and more than 80,000 people were estimated to have died from sickness or injury annually along the route - providing a steady diet of easy human meat to hungry lions.

The study suggest that lions resort to man-eating due to a number of factors, including scarcity of their usual prey due to over-hunting by humans, and injuries like broken limbs that make hunting fast prey difficult for the lions.

Such behaviour appears to be passed on through generations, including tricks such as not attacking the same village twice in a row. The research uncovered reports of three generations of lions in Tanzania in the 1930s and 1940s whose man-eating lions persisted until all members of the pride were killed.

The study is still relevant in Africa today, where a pride of lions have killed nine people since December 2002, and continue to terrorise people in central Malawi, according to BBC reports. The region is currently in drought, forcing wildlife to travel further afield for food.

Danny Kingsley - ABC Science Online

More Info?

The mane thing about lions, News in Science 26 Aug 2002

Toothaches may have led to lion attacks, ABC News 22 Jun 2000

Extinct marsupial cats were real whoppers!, News in Science 6 Apr 1999

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[45Auto]

A better source for the entire text of Col. Patterson's book: Patterson's Book

I read a few excerpts and it appears that Patterson used three guns in his lion hunting: a falling block action, perhaps a Martini-Henry, a .303 British, most likely tye Lee-Medford (the forerunner of the Lee-Enfield) and a double barreled 12 gauge shotgun perhaps loaded with slugs.

[45Auto]

Here's a poor quality photo of Patterson himself (on left) with one of his rifles; I can't make out what it is from this photo.

[Dialup Llama]

>Indeed. Why wouldn’t the lions like us? We’re all pink and squishy; almost no hair, teeth, or claws; no hooves… if it weren’t for our bones we’d be like Jell-o to them!

Seems this lion is developing a healthy fear of humans (healthy for people).

[archy]

who used a bolt action Lee-Medford rifle chambered in .303 British.

The legendary Lee Speed Sporter, if I'm not mistaken. Would he have been using Mk VII ball?

Probably not circa 1898, more likely the Mk II loading that preceeded it, though possibly using a heavier bullet than the the issue 215-grain roundnose. The *Cartridge, S.A. ball .303 inch Cordite Mk III* notoriously known for the production facility at DumDum arsenal in India was in service by 1897 [until 1903] but may or may not have been available in all the other corners of the farflung British empire, and there's also the question as to whether a 215-grain hollowpoint bullet would have had the best- and quickest- effect on large cats.

It wasn't until 1910 that the sharply pointed 174-grain bullet at 2440 FPS was pattern-sealed for production as the Mark VII loading, so it was more likely the Mk I or MkII cordite loading- or the even earlier original black powder loads for the Enfield- that solved the problem. But whether with factory-loaded military projectiles, ammunition produced by another source, or that modified or reloaded to suit the particular hunter, target or rifle, remains an open question.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Here's a poor quality photo of Patterson himself(on left) with one of his rifles; I can't make out what it is from this photo.

That one appears to be a Martini. This one *may* be the Lee-Medford. Oh and some of them were not true .303 rifles, but had bores measuring .299 on the lands and .309 in the grooves, as did some Canadian straight-pull Ross rifle's of that same pre-turn-of-the-century era.

I'd expect he was quite proficient with either.

[Dan from Michigan]

Lions developing a taste for humans
Lions developing a taste for Packers, Vikings, and Bears.

There...that's better.

[Hatteras]

Lighten up Francis, Major Owens is a Congressman from Brooklyn Heights, New York and the Chair of the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus).

He stated in a congressional speech concerning slavery reperations that over 20 million slaves died during the passage from Africa to America and and were thrown overboard and sharks are still patrolling the slave route waiting for more human flesh. To save you some time, the numbers worked out to somewhere around 4000 slaves a day were cast overboard.

This was a not too subtle political jab that crossed my mind when I read where the article stated that the total lion victims were probably much less than folklore dictates. My apologies, I keep forgetting there are a number of people here who go through life with their panties in a wad and jump to ill-informed conclusions.

Have a good evening.

[Spiff]

That's too bad. I thought the Lions were a good, charitable organization. I wondered how they got all those eyeglasses though - but eating people!!? I'm going to stay away from them now. Sheesh!

[TheBattman]

Nice of you to educate me in the fact that being a congressman and Chair of the CBC makes someone a genuine irrefutable source of information.

Now, I have no doubts that huge numbers of slaves died, both in the capture (by fellow Africans for the most part), the transport across land (lions, conditions, etc.), and in the trip across the ocean. I in no way wish to take away from that fact.

4000 slave per day thrown overboard? That's a lot! I can't imagine how many ships must have been in-route at a time to have that many to throw overboard.

By the way, what do you expect your share of the anticipated reparations to be?

[Hatteras]

"Nice of you to educate me in the fact that being a congressman and Chair of the CBC makes someone a genuine irrefutable source of information."

Uh, Major Owens is considered to be an idiot in most circles. Never mind though, the comment went right over your head.

Oh my, what would you do with a brain if you had one?