[.ca] Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa (ISBN 0792263626)

The Outlaw Lions:
"Tsavo" means "place of slaughter" - the lions there are abnormally large, have maneless males, and are historically known as man-eaters. In 1898 two rogue lions terrorized a railway construction project; these lions were called "Ghost" and "Darkness" and inspired a 1996 film about this event. The Tsavo district is in south Kenya adjacent to Tanzania. This pair of lions would sneak into the construction camp at night, snatch up men from their tents and consume them within hearing distance. The engineer in charge, Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, was an experienced tiger hunter but was often outwitted by these beasts. The contract laborers from India came to regard them as body-snatching demons. Eventually Patterson shot one lion from a platform. He trailed the second after wounding it (pp.7-8). A century later another man-eating lion appeared (pp.9-21). Note how this implies another form of colonial oppression: the people cannot keep and bear arms. A dozen 12 gauge shotguns could eliminate these wild beasts. There are other beasts preying on Kenya today (p.33). Muggings, murders, and carjackings are so common that tourism is declining. This is matched by other sub-Sahara African countries. White colonials are safe in their fortresses, like medieval aristocracy (p.34). Tsavo lions are genetically different from common lions. They may be descended from maneless cave lions of the Pleistocene period. Their massive size matches their prey: the large, strong Cape buffalo (p.44). Theory says a crippling wound causes a lion to turn man-eater; the other reason is a loss of natural prey due to disease or over-hunting (p.46). Or they were taught from preying on abandoned bodies! Most man-eaters killed were in good or fair condition (p.47). Page 47 tells how a lion was killed with a knife! Much of the fossil evidence of early human evolution comes from the bones left by large feline predators. It still happens to bicycle riders and drinkers at pubs (p.132). Predators look for a sign of weakness or injury. Page 256 tells how to hunt a lion. Find a carcass, then track the lion to where it was sleeping. Kill it before it awakes. Males with large, dark manes are preferred by females (p.251). Two myths about man-eaters are disproved on page 266. Man-eaters are not old or injured, or can't catch "normal" prey. Primates, like humans, are the normal prey of big cats for thousands of years. 7,000 people were killed in India by tigers in the mid-1920s. 1,500 humans were killed in southern Tanzania between 1932 and 1947 (p.267). Lions use their strong jaws and powerful limbs to kill. They pull an animal down and break its neck or clamp down on its muzzle to suffocate it (p.268). An area free of wild prey can create man-eating lions, particularly if the colonial rulers ban firearms to the people. Burial practices left dead bodies above ground, which attracted predators and trained them as man-eaters. Epidemics and famine added to the human food supply (p.292).

Ghosts of Tsavo:
If you have ambitions to be a writer,avoid reading this book since it,ll just fill you with envy. Every word has the right nuance,the sentences run like limpid streams , the gentle humor pervasive and the opinions expressed thoughtful. Can anyone, for instance, argue with the statement that nearly every problem that we face is caused or aggravated by the fact that are just too many of us. The excellence of this book should come as no surprise since the author is none other than ex-marine who also gave us the best account by a combatant (on our side) of the Great Crusade in Vietnam. The subject of the present book are the lions of Tsavo who are less manely but defintely more manly than the other members of their species and have developed a taste for the human flesh and their appetizers include not only the skeletal locals but also an occasional tourist who had loved nature not wisely but only too well. Two groups of American academics are engaged in a bitter fight over the reasons behind the maneaters obvious lack of etiquette each trying to capture the lion,s share of grants,honors,etc and finally the holiest of all grails-publication in a "refereed" journal. All of this happens within the shouting distance of the hellhole of Nairobi, where, if there is a just God, the final resting place for all of those opposed to population control.Nairobi is also the focal point for the activities of the Christ like figure of rock and roll artist and father of six Bono who wants us to pay for the sexual recklessness of the locals (Bono,s millions do not enter into the equation) while he residing in one of his mansions ponders new scams to prove his moral superiority. Never mind the insignificance of the subjet matter since Captuto can write about yesetrday,s leftovers and make them interesting. After reading this delightful book my own take is that there is incontrovertible evidence that human thugs commit their bestialities because of lack of "self esteem" (it used to be poverty) and it,ll be a great project for the dogooding bleeding heart animal rights activists to go to Tsavo and feed Minoxidill to the lions so they could lead peaceful lives under assumed manes. In the process some of the actvistis may become canapes for the lions and that,ll be just wonderful.

Engaging look at unusual lions:
"Ghosts of Tsavo" is part travelogue, part natural history, part murder mystery, and part mid-life crisis for its author Philip Caputo. What it is as a whole is a fascinating, engaging look at the lions of Tsavo Park in Kenya. Caputo first became interested in these unusual lions as a result of a visit to the Field Museum in Chicago as a young boy. Therein were "Ghost" and "Darkness" two enormous males lions that terrorized constructions workers building a rail line through Tsavo. In fact terrorized may be too weak a word as they are credited with killing at least 120 people and literarily halting construction until they were eventually hunted down and killed by British Lt. Col. Patterson who was heading up the project. He recounted this effort in his famous memoir "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" and kindled a fascination with Kenya's lions that lingered with Caputo for half a century. What sets the lions of Tsavo apart from the more familiar ones we know from nature documentaries, is that they are much bigger, and the males are either maneless of have very short manes, in either case nothing like the regal mountains of fur on their cousins from the Serengeti. In the first half of the book, Caputo explores reasons as to why this might by the case. It is possible that since Tsavo is much warmer than the Serengeti, manes are too expensive in terms of internal resources to grow. Another possibility is that the thick scrub brush and thorns of the region wear down manes before they ever become truly impressive. However, it is a more controversial theory that makes for the most entertaining reading. Caputo encounters several scientists who argue that the lions of Tsavo are genetically distinct from the lions on the Serengeti. Moreover, they argue that the lions of Tsavo are in fact a throw back to prehistoric lions, quite literally walking fossils. The point to the lack of manes, the much larger height and girth and the fact that Tsavo lions hunt the enormous Cape Buffalo as justifications for this thesis. Ultimately, Caputo, in three journeys to Kenya over the course of eighteen months (once as a tourist and twice with scientific expeditions) is never able to definitively state which hypothesis is correct. However, that in no way detracts from his rambling, conversational narrative. Caputo is not a scientist, and he in no way pretends to be one, although he does (and justifiably so) consider himself a well-informed observer. As such, he is not constrained by the rigors of academia, and can therefore transfer his passion for these lions and the mystery surrounding them onto the page. In fact, towards the end he grows weary of the scientific studies as they somehow detract from the powerful aura that surrounds the lions. If you are interested in lions in general, or if the prospect of some spine-tingling tales of man-eating lions sounds appealing, "Ghost of Tsavo" is well worth reading. However, beyond the surface elements, Caputo has written a book that captures the raw spirituality of nature, and that bemoans modern man's detachment from the primitive. So it is entirely likely that even if you have no interest in lions at all, you may be drawn to Caputo's lament for something we don't even realize we have lost. Either way, "Ghost's of Tsavo" is well worth reading.

Almost made it:
Caputo is pulitzer winner. As such, I expected much more from his book. He seems to pose a basic question, "Are the lions in Tsavo genetically different?" He spends a great deal of time interviewing scientists about this point. He arranges funding for a study to be done. He goes to Africa, to Tsavo with some scientists. Where, according to his own account, he tells them that he doesn't want to know! He doesn't want science to de-mystify his world view. In the end, he never really gets an answer. He also, seems to find it curious that lions should be man eaters. While in Africa, he is constantly asking professional hunters, long time residents and scientist to explain how this could be. Sorry, I don't understand why the question even has to be asked. In the end, the book left me frustrated.

A noble effort that almost succeeded:
Having spent 4 weeks in South Africa last summer doing research on lions myself, I was deeply interested in reading this book (as I am also a fan of Patterson's story). I expected to be blown away with stories, true or not, of man-eating lions in Africa. Instead, Caputo focused a bit too much on things not pertaining to lions, especially towards the end of the book. Don't get me wrong, man-eating info was there, but I just was not as frightened by this book as I hoped to be. It is still a good read however.