Lions of Tsavo: Mankillers Still?

music
ambience: Lions growl, roar

A hundred years ago in southeastern Kenya, a pair of lions achieved notoriety when they killed over 130 people. Today, lions in this region occasionally still attack humans, and this behavior may be linked to another kind of prey – cattle. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“Lions kill humans throughout their range even today.”

Earthwatch scientist Roland Kays is curator of mammals at the New York State Museum in Albany. He’s been studying the lions of Kenya’s Greator Tsavo ecosystem.

“In Tsavo there have been recent incidents sometimes where the lion has attacked a cow; the herdsman has come out to chase the lion away, and the lion would turn on the herdsman and actually kill the individual who was just trying to tend to his cattle. People are most vulnerable at night, when the lions hunt the most and when human eyesight is the worst so people who go walking on foot through areas where there are lions at night are in trouble, especially if they’re drunk and staggering around which you know happens sometimes late at night. People walk home and the lion can see that that person may not be as fast as the rest and that makes them a more vulnerable prey.”

“It’s actually, in some ways, maybe surprising that there aren’t more incidences between cattle and lions because they have a evolved to recognize vulnerable prey and cattle are enormous dinners walking around with very little defense. And I think the long history of cattle raising in Africa has lead to some sort of a truce of an arms race where the lions have evolved to not prefer cattle, because those that do prefer cattle end up getting killed by the humans quicker. A lot of the animals that are shot after eating cattle, if you look at them carefully, they’ve had some nasty injury. Certainly one man eater would have been in serious pain judging from the problems that he had and that may have lead him to the easier prey of humans rather than going after the zebra that’s likely to kick him in the mouth again with a big hoof.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

music

Lions of Tsavo: Mankillers Still?

When lions hunt humans, there may be more than one reason.
Air Date:01/05/2005
Scientist:
Transcript:

music
ambience: Lions growl, roar

A hundred years ago in southeastern Kenya, a pair of lions achieved notoriety when they killed over 130 people. Today, lions in this region occasionally still attack humans, and this behavior may be linked to another kind of prey - cattle. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

"Lions kill humans throughout their range even today."

Earthwatch scientist Roland Kays is curator of mammals at the New York State Museum in Albany. He's been studying the lions of Kenya's Greator Tsavo ecosystem.

"In Tsavo there have been recent incidents sometimes where the lion has attacked a cow; the herdsman has come out to chase the lion away, and the lion would turn on the herdsman and actually kill the individual who was just trying to tend to his cattle. People are most vulnerable at night, when the lions hunt the most and when human eyesight is the worst so people who go walking on foot through areas where there are lions at night are in trouble, especially if they’re drunk and staggering around which you know happens sometimes late at night. People walk home and the lion can see that that person may not be as fast as the rest and that makes them a more vulnerable prey."

"It’s actually, in some ways, maybe surprising that there aren’t more incidences between cattle and lions because they have a evolved to recognize vulnerable prey and cattle are enormous dinners walking around with very little defense. And I think the long history of cattle raising in Africa has lead to some sort of a truce of an arms race where the lions have evolved to not prefer cattle, because those that do prefer cattle end up getting killed by the humans quicker. A lot of the animals that are shot after eating cattle, if you look at them carefully, they’ve had some nasty injury. Certainly one man eater would have been in serious pain judging from the problems that he had and that may have lead him to the easier prey of humans rather than going after the zebra that’s likely to kick him in the mouth again with a big hoof."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.

music