Comments on: Maneless Maneaters May Leave USA

By: AtomicMrEMonster

AtomicMrEMonster — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:20:18 +0000

What, no reference to the Tsavo incident inspiring the plot of the early 3-D movie “Bwana Devil”?

By: MattBille

MattBille — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:08:03 +0000

I just finished a fascinating book on this: Ghosts of Tsavo, by Philip Caputo. A slighly newer and more scholarly work, The Lions of Tsavo by Bruce Patterson, is on my “to do” list.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:19:58 +0000

I practically grew up on weekends at the Field and the story of the Tsavo Lions,taxidermy of Carl Akeley, Malvina Hoffman’s anthropological bronzes, and the murals of Charles Knight filled my imagination and informed my views on the world an the tragedy of its discovery.
The notion of lending the mounted subjects to Kenya is a lot more palatable than returning them as a form of lost patrimony. As for the lions themselves, I don’t know if it’s been noted but back in the earlier colonial days in Africa, just as everywhere during that period of expansion, work crews needed to eat and local tribesmen and imported commecial hunters wiped out huge numbers of local animals, leaving a disrupted population balance which rebounded in many strange ways and altering our early observers idea of what the untamed wilderness was all about and leading us to some inaccurate conclusions on nature in balance.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:20:11 +0000

These lions make for a very interesting story. Could they perhaps be a separate subspecies? I too would like to know if there is any correlation between hairless manes and tendency to actively attack humans. Taking our ego aside, humans are actually quite easy prey for a lion when not armed. It makes sense that they should see us as a viable prey animal, especially when hungry. However, these lions demonstrated a startling, fearless willingness to actively hunt humans that is not seen in most lion populations. I wonder what it was that made the lions of this area like this? Could it be something about the environment? Genetics? A heightened aggression linked to a mix of environmental factors AND genetics? Was it a threat of starvation? A behavior altering disease? Very fascinating to speculate about.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:58:45 +0000

Actually, field studies of the generally maneless lions of Tsavo show they get more females and did not end up sharing their harems with as many males as lions in other areas of Africa do.

Didn’t want to bog down the blog with a lot of research and citations, but there’s been some intriguing studies done with these lions this century. Do a google search.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:47:13 +0000

A maneless male might have a lot of trouble gaining a pride of females, and not have the advantage of the pride hunting, perhaps leading to man-eating?

By: ShefZ28

ShefZ28 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:08:38 +0000

I was just at the field museum a week or two ago. They are contained in the exhibit with all of the other stuffed and mounted animals (quite a large collection). Not much information is given about them.

Although I remember reading on the display that the lions were actually larger than what is on display. After they were killed they were skinned and (if i remember correctly) not all of the ‘hide’ was found to put them together.

By: elkie

elkie — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:00:32 +0000

Recent research has found that the thickness of a lions mane is linked directly to local climate. The colder the climate the thicker the mane, and vice versa.
The adult male lions of Tsavo often thinner, shorter manes, and sometimes no manes at all.
The lack of a mane in both of these animals is just an example of the latter.