What caused a pair of lions to eat a reported 135 people? I'm Adam from Ripleys.com and this is your Weird Minute. The lions of the Savo region are notoriously known as man-eaters. Thanks to a lack of water, they grow smaller manes or no manes at all. As slave traders left their cargo for dead in their harsh habitat, the lions are thought to have acquired a taste for human flesh.
But it wasn't until the British began building infrastructure in Savo in 1898 that the lions became world famous. A rogue pair of males began eating train and bridge builders with seemingly preternatural hunger. Screams could be heard in the dead of night as these ferocious predators pulled men from their tents into the wilderness. Thorny barricades, bonfires, and strict curfews did nothing to stop the ravenous felines.
It took veteran tiger hunter John Henry Patterson until the very end of the year to put an end to their hunt, killing the two nine-foot lions at long last. Patterson had the lions stuffed, and they eventually ended up in museum hands. Studies confirmed they were eating men shortly before they were killed, but found a tooth abscess that may explain why they dined on the easier-to-catch humans. To see what the preserved lions look like, head to ripleys.com.
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