Man-eaters Not So Much by Scott LaFee - Eureka! on Creators.com

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Man-eaters Not So Much

For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been a fabulous story and crowd-pleaser. The two lions reportedly killed and ate as many as 135 people in the Tsavo River region of Kenya before being shot and killed in 1898. Their skinned and stuffed bodies, eventually purchased by Chicago's Field Museum, remain among the institution's most popular exhibits.

The story of how the lions preyed upon a terrified camp of Imperial British railroad workers is the stuff of legend and movies, specifically the 1996 thriller "The Ghost and the Darkness," starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer. But like many good stories and Hollywood movies, the truth turns out to be something much less fantastic.

Using advanced techniques to analyze the lions' bones and fur, researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz say the actual number of human meals was likely closer to 35. The scientists compared isotopes in the lions' samples with their more normal prey of zebra, wildebeest and buffalo with other lions and with the remains of 19th-century Kenyans. They concluded that one of the lions ate 24 humans, while the other ate 11.

"The possible range is between 4 and 72 humans, but 35 is most likely," study author Justin Yeakel told The New York Times.

It remains unknown why the lions developed a taste for human flesh, but the reason for the numerical exaggeration seems all too obvious: fame and fortune. Col. John H. Patterson, the British engineer who killed the lions, was the source of the 135 victims figure. He would eventually write a best-selling book about his exploits. One hundred-plus victims sounds a lot scarier than 35 unless, of course, you're one of the 35.

'TRUE FACTS'

In a cave in the Bukk Mountains of Hungary, scientists discovered that Great Tits (a large and common passerine bird) were eating hibernating pipistrelle bats.

When offered sunflower seeds and bacon, however, the birds left the bats alone.

BRAIN SWEAT

Can you translate the following phrase: "A totality of numerous objects that coruscate or are refulgent are not necessarily composed entire of auriferous substances"?

PRIME NUMBERS

20 — Percentage of Britain's honeybees that died last winter (an improvement over the 30 percent that perished the previous winter)

Source: Harper's

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

All that glitters is not gold.

VERBATIM

The least likely hypothesis is that the squirrel was preparing to eat the bat. Another possibility is that either the squirrel or the bat was mentally off balance.

— A mammalogist in Tanzania's Mwofwomero Forest on the discovery that a squirrel had killed a fruit bat

ANTHROPOLOGY 101

In the Congo, it was once customary to ring a bell while drinking a beer. The noise was meant to scare off evil spirits who might otherwise slip down one's throat with the brew.

QUIRKS OF NATURE

Changing coastal and ocean temperatures appear to be driving fish, including commercially valuable species, to move farther north and away from shore. A new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that about half of the 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean have moved north over the past 40 years, with some stocks almost entirely disappearing from U.S. waters.

WHAT IS IT? ANSWER

A scanning electron image of the edge of a dime, magnified 30 times. Taken by Scott Frankowski, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.