The Lions of Tsavo

While this exhibit is only one of thousands of beautiful, infinitely interesting specimens on display at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, I found none as captivating as The Tsavo Lions, notorious for their attacks on railroad workers in Kenya's arid Tsavo region in 1898. Their notoriety even inspired a relatively recent major motion picture, "Ghost and The Darkness", a loose rendition of the events that transpired in Tsavo during those turbulent months in 1898. And, although legend has it that together, they killed and ate well over 100 railroad workers during their reign of terror, recent scientific developments have concluded that the number is actually closer to around 30 (still terrifying). Currently, it is theorized that due to an intense drought in the Tsavo region during 1898, the lions' food chain had been disrupted to the point of near nonexistence. As a result, they turned to stalking and hunting railroad workers who had been tasked with building the Tsavo River Bridge, under the command of Colonel John Henry Patterson. Paterson eventually assembled a hunting party and put the lions down, but not before they had already inflicted an almost irrecoverable amount of damage to his bridge project. These creatures are still on display in the Chicago Field Museum, and I couldn't help but to sit nearby for a few minutes in a moment of reverential silence, contemplating both their magnificence, and the human lives they took in their time.

Here are some pictures I took of the lions, as well as the Museum itself. If you're in Chicago, this museum is a must see!

Note: The Tsavo Lions were in fact male, but due to the arid climate at the time, they had not grown manes. Interestingly, I also learned that lions can grow and shed their manes in response to environmental conditions.