However, stable isotope analysis of their hair and bone collagen suggests that they had consumed ~35 people, representing roughly 30% of the first man-eater’s diet (FMNH 23970) and ~13% of the second man-eater’s diet (FMNH 23969) 13.
Patterson, who eventually killed the Tsavo man-eaters in December 1898, estimated that they had killed and eaten 135 people 12. Two notorious lions (popularized in the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness) terrorized people near Tsavo by repeatedly killing and consuming railway workers in 1898, and one from Mfuwe, Zambia consumed six people as recently as 1991 11. Man-eating, or consumption of humans as women and children are often victims, has occasionally been a dietary strategy of lions and other pantherines 9, 10. Their current range collapse, to 20% of historic values, is driven not by limited adaptability but rather by habitat loss and fragmentation, prey depletion, and direct persecution 8. Further, habitat and droughts can affect lion preferences and prey vulnerability to predation, with lions increasing the proportion of elephant calves consumed during droughts 7.
Lions are known to consume a diverse suite of prey with preferences for gemsbok, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, Thomson’s gazelle, warthog, kongoni, and topi 4, 6. Smaller groups and females prey mainly on zebra and wildebeest whereas larger groups and males feed differentially on buffalo 4, 5. Lion behaviours, diets, and social groupings all vary enormously in response to spatial or temporal shifts in prey availability and habitat structure 3. They are highly social, and males and females each live in persistent bonded groups 2. Currently, lions ( Panthera leo) occupy savannas and deserts in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding rainforests and the Sahara), with an isolated population located in the Gir Forest of India. Lions ( Panthera leo) once inhabited much of Africa, southeastern Europe, and southwestern Asia 1. Man-eating was likely a viable alternative to hunting and/or scavenging ungulates due to dental disease and/or limited prey availability. Further, prompt carcass reclamation by humans likely limited the man-eaters’ access to bones. Dental injuries to two of the three man-eaters examined may have induced shifts in feeding onto softer foods. Compared to wild-caught lions elsewhere in Africa and other large feliforms, including cheetahs and hyenas, dental microwear textures of the man-eaters do not suggest extreme durophagy (e.g. Specifically, we analysed the surface textures of lion teeth to assess whether these notorious man-eating lions scavenged carcasses during their depredations. Fathoming the motivations of the Tsavo and Mfuwe man-eaters (killed in 1898 in Kenya and 1991 in Zambia, respectively) may be elusive, but we can clarify aspects of their behaviour using dental microwear texture analysis. Although humans are not typical prey, habitual man-eating by lions is well documented. Lions ( Panthera leo) feed on diverse prey species, a range that is broadened by their cooperative hunting.