Spoken Portrait: The Killer Lions of Tsavo

ILLUSTRATESMurilo Araujo

1. In March 1898, two male lions began probing the workers of a bridge which was being built on the Tsavo River in Kenya by the British Empire. The first to spot them was Irish lieutenant colonel John Henry Patterson, who had just arrived in the region to supervise the work.

two. Patterson described the animals in the book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, from 1907. They were immense: they measured 3 m in length, from snout to the tip of the tail. AND they had no mane. (According to scientists later stated, baldness could be an indication of excess testosterone, which would also explain the high aggressiveness)

3. In the first week, they ambushed some workers who went into the forest to get firewood. About a month later, they were already confident to invade the tents and huts of workers in the dead of night. They grabbed the victims and dragged them to the savannah. In the middle of the year they no longer feared anyone and devoured the men, still alive, in the camp itself.

4. The height of terror set in when one of the animals crawled under a hospital tent and massacred dozens who were sleeping. To prevent another attack, Patterson relocated the infirmary in the center of the camp and surrounded it with thorns, bonfires and sniper posts. It didn’t work: the following morning, the lions slaughtered a nurse

5. According to records from the time, in nine months the lions would have killed about 140 people. And it wasn’t even meant to be eaten: only 35 were devoured. In early December, traumatized survivors they paralyzed the work with a strike. Many left. With his reputation and life on the line, Patterson decided it was time for the «hunt» to become the «hunter».

6. A small group led by Patterson set out to find the beasts. But the animals seemed to have supernatural cleverness, dodging every advance and carrying out strategic offensives. Natives came to believe they were the spirits of two chief healers who had returned for revenge. They were called “shaitaini”, or Shadow and Darkness

7. Without the workers around, the cats took over the construction site. To lure them out of the camp, Patterson spread the blood of three goats dead at the foot of a platform camouflaged with leaves, where he hid. From above and on watch, the hunter located one of the targets and fired six times. A shot hit the heart: game over for one of the lions

8. The other had escaped, but he was wary. Repeating the strategy, Patterson stood guard at the top of the trap. On the morning of December 29, the beast returned. Without the tactical support of the partner, it ended up taking a bullet and fled through the thicket. Cornered, he tried one last lunge, but a shot in the chest and another in the head killed him.

9. Throughout the 20th century, several theories have tried to explain this story. For experts at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Shadow and Darkness may have chosen to hunt people after the rinderpest exterminated their traditional prey. Dead bodies abandoned by the slave trade may have introduced them to the taste of human flesh

WHAT END DID IT TAKE?

Patterson sold the lions’ skin and skull to the Field Museum in Chicago for $5,000. Since 1924, the original remains have been part of a permanent exhibition.

SOURCES Sites VEJA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Chicago Tribune, The globe It is Smithsonianand article “The Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo,” from the Field Museum of Natural History

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