In 1898, British officer John Henry Patterson was building a bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya when he encountered an unprecedented crisis of terror, with "ghosts" and "devils" constantly attacking his construction workers. As a result, there was a mass evacuation of workers and bridge-building programs had to be suspended. What's going on?
It turned out that they had the misfortune to arrive there when they encountered the Tsavo Piranha Lion, which frightened the locals, and the two male lions had preyed on 135 people in their first year of going. Sergeant Patterson organized a hunting party to begin the work as soon as possible, and they searched for a long time along the traces of the workers being dragged away. The effort paid off, and one night they finally saw a lion lurking in the bushes. The lion ran away as soon as they found it, and by the light they faintly saw the silhouette of the lion. It is nearly 3 meters long, athletic, and has no mane, which at first glance looks like a lioness. Until then, they thought there was only one lion. They set up fences around the camp, wrapped themselves in thorns, lured them with poison that enveloped their prey, and squatted all night with guns, finally killing the first lion. Unexpectedly, the second lion was not scared away by the death of his companion, but was even more unscrupulous, and the second tried to attack the railway inspector on the night the first lion was killed. It seems to the locals to be an act of revenge. But after much maneuvering, they also managed to kill the second lion. News of the deaths of two ghosts of the night soon spread throughout the region, and Sergeant Patterson was also known to the Natives as the "Demon Killer." When the fleeing workers heard the news, they also put aside their uneasiness and returned to Tsavo to continue their work.
One of the man-eating lions captured by Sergeant Patterson
Man-eating lions are elusive
After the two male lions were killed, the bones were sent to the Wildlife Museum in Chicago, USA. In general, lions only selectively attack humans and do not use humans as the main hunting target. But they are keen to eat people. In nature, it is also difficult to see two male lions hunting at the same time. Although they are the only felines that prefer to live in groups, a lion group usually has 8-30 members, with one leading male lion and another male taking on successive generations of females and cubs. Sergeant Patterson and his workers did not find out which lion herd they had returned to. And the male lions we usually see generally have manes, which is the most basic appearance feature of male lions. Scientists say that although the thick mane will bring the favor of the female lion to the male lion, appearing domineering side leakage, the mane reflects the health of the male lion to some extent. But the lions of Tsavo have no mane. The reason may be that the colonists came to Africa to hunt and kill a large number of Tsavo lions in order to use the lion's head as an ornament, so they gradually evolved into a maneless state.
Attacking humans because the "combat power" is too weak?
Humans are vulnerable to these large predators, and a human who does not carry any offensive or defensive weapons has an almost zero chance of surviving a lion. The reason why they love to provoke humans may be that they think that humans are good at bullying. It is speculated that the two lions may have diseases, and some researchers have said that the teeth of these two man-eating lions are not very good, because in the study of the skull part of one of the lions, it was found that its teeth were not very complete, and the periodontal periodontal was accompanied by abscesses, so it was not convenient to bite the thick skin of adopted or buffalo, so humans who chose fine skin and tender flesh were selected. Others say it's because they can't run fast enough to catch up with animals like antelopes. Sick, they were eliminated by the lions and had to cooperate in hunting.
Man-eating lions have become accustomed to eating human flesh, and other meats are not accustomed to eating.
Some researchers have proposed that there was a trade route in Kenya at that time, and slave traders often abandoned slaves who died in the middle of the land, so the parents of the two lions gradually became accustomed to the taste of humans after constantly eating these corpses, so that the cannibalistic hormones were left in the genes of their descendants, and the little lions would learn hunting techniques and life habits from their mothers, so they also learned cannibalism, and when a large number of humans came here, they began to hunt humans wildly.
The man-eating lion that was made into specimens and displayed in the museum
In fact, from the above speculation about the reason why the Chavo man-eating lion loves to eat people, the man-eating lion is inseparable from human activities after all, and humans put their companions in the lion's dinner plate, so that they develop the habit of cannibalism, and then humans retaliate, resulting in a decrease in the number of lions. These two lions may have been driven by instinct to attack humans from beginning to end, and the idea of partial generalization makes us think that this lion loves to eat people, which intensifies their hunting. Because the piranha lions frequently attack humans, the climate causes food to shrink and they begin to attack human poultry, and the retaliation of humans against them is also increasing, the weapons of humans are becoming more and more powerful, and the desire of humans to hunt wild lions is also getting stronger. Therefore, the piranha lion has long faded its former prestige, and its number has decreased sharply.
It is now a protected animal in Tsavo National Park in southeastern Kenya. But the Chavo piranha outside the national park is still in an awkward position. Roland Kay, the guardian of mammals at the New York State Museum, said that if it continues in its current form, these lions may be on the verge of extinction. Nowadays, if it is not actively entering the habitat of lions, it is almost impossible for wild lions to attack people. So even if it is a murderous piranha lion, we should now put the right mentality, include such lions in the list of wildlife protection, and advocate peaceful coexistence between humans and animals. The protection of the Tsavo lion in Kenya's national parks alone is not enough.