Sound of the Week
The handsome devils pictured are the taxidermied carcasses of the famous Lions of Tsavo. These boys (yes, they’re both boys, male lions in hot, dry environments do not have manes as lions in colder, wetter environments do) attacked railroad crews in 1898 as they attempted to building a railroad line over the Tsavo river in Kenya. They terrorized the crew for months, killing and eating 28 people. Finally, John Henry Patterson managed to take them down. And I got to see (and photograph) their preserved and stuffed pelts at the Field Museum in Chicago just the other day.
Most lions, it should be noted, are NOT man-eaters. Why were these two? There are several hypotheses, but the leading one right now is that the lions were not in the best of dental health. And man-meat is soft and squishy. We’re like the jello of the lion world. For more on these lions, check out the Stuff you Missing in History podcast, parts 1 and 2.
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