Did you know that a tooth infection caused the death of close to 150 men? The killing was done by a pair of brothers by the way!
Do not worry though! It was long back and this is just one of the theories!
The story of the death of over 100 men who were mostly Indians, has been written in the history and well documented!
They were killed by a pair of Brother Lions!
Disney’s attempt at Humanising the LION in their movies is, well just a fairy tale!
Though with the recent way HUMANS are behaving, I am not so sure about the HUMANISING aspect!
The fact of the matter remains though that the Lions in this case were no insect eaters! They were called the Tsavo Man-Eaters!
The Tsavo Man-Eaters were a pair of large man-eating “maneless lion” in the Tsavo region of Kenya, which were responsible for the deaths of many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway between March and December 1898.
The term “maneless lion” or “scanty mane lion” often refers to a male lion without a mane, or with a weak one.
The purpose of the mane is thought to signal the fitness of males to females. Experts disagree as to whether or not the mane defends the male lion’s throat in confrontations! Then again these “maneless lion” were neither weal nor tame!
The lion pair was said to have killed dozens of people, with some early estimates reaching over a hundred deaths. While the terrors of man-eating lions were not new in the British public perception, the Tsavo Man-Eaters became one of the most notorious instances of dangers posed to Indian and native African workers of the Uganda Railway.
They were eventually killed by Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, who wrote his account of his hunting experience in a semi-biography The Man-eaters of Tsavo. The original account of the kills and the whole fiasco is thrilling and scary!
Theories for the man-eating behaviour of lions have been reviewed by many and many theories have been put forward.
One was how an outbreak of rinderpest (cattle plague) in 1898 devastated the lions’ usual prey, forcing them to find alternative food sources.
The Tsavo lions may have been accustomed to finding dead humans at the Tsavo River crossing and may have got a “taste” of the ‘more tasty’ human meat!
One famous (or infamous!) theory is that the first lion had a severely damaged tooth that would have compromised its ability to kill natural prey.
Colonel Patterson, who killed the lions, disclaimed it, saying that he damaged that tooth with his rifle while the lion charged him one night, prompting it to flee.
Studies indicate that the lions ate humans as a supplement to other food, as a last resort. Eating humans was probably an alternative to hunting or scavenging due to dental disease and/or a limited number of prey! Maybe they needed some Human-vitamins!
Then a 2017 study by Bruce Patterson found that one of the lions had an infection at the root of his canine tooth, making it hard for that particular lion to hunt. Lions typically use their jaws to grab prey like zebras and wildebeests and suffocate them! So the tooth theory (it sounds like a tooth fairy!) still stands!
So the moral of the story!? Well, take care of your tooth! And no! This is not a ad for my dental colleague!
If you think you have not heard of the man eaters of Tsavo then may be you may have heard of this Movie inspired by them starring the two great stars of the time! Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas showing their ‘Basic instinct’ in the jungle! The way the lions used to attack got them a cool name! They were called The “Ghost” and the “Darkness”!
Of course you know the name now!
Well do you know who is the chief of Air staff!?
It is Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh!
Proud of our air force!
Jai hind!
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