Did you know that most visitors going for a Tsavo safari from Mombasa always ask about the Man Eaters of Tsavo? Back in 1890s, there lived tricky, fearless and beastly looking man eaters in form of lions that killed quite a number of Tsavo railway workers. Tsavo is famously known for this lion’s act that claimed about one hundred and forty lives along the line that separates Tsavo East and Tsavo west. The lions cared not about the thorny fences around the camps nor the curfews that were installed at night. These lions dragged out the men from their tents and fed on them mercilessly. It is believed that this kind of behaviour developed due to the lions encountering exposed humans corpses more than the normal animals they should be hunting for resulting to them desiring human beings.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, who was spearheading the construction of Tsavo river bridge in Kenya (then called British East Africa) realizing the threat the lions posed to him, the workers and the locals, hunted for the two maneless lions and shot them down; first lion on 2 december 1898 while the second on 29th December same year. This enabled continuation of the railway line construction and a guaranteed peaceful Tsavo. He was considered a hero and received many congratulatory messages from all over the world. One main reason that led to his will to kill the lions was the danger posed to the human lives of the locals and railway workers team. Second reason was meant to safe himself from the hostility of the superstitious workers. They blamed him as being the person responsible for the killing lion behavior since the deaths coincided with his arrival. Some locals even believed that these lions were not normal, they were spirits sent to hunt for anyone who went to work at the Tsavo railway line.
The lions in Tsavo National Parks are now normal, very friendly and live naturally with the rest of the animals in this African Jungle.
