The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

Have you heard of it? I've heard of it. You have because you're here. It's been my livelihood for a few years.

“This is my longest job that I've had. I mean, I was a youthful, me started this.”

I listened to first of all, if you just started listening to Morbid and you caught up like super duper fast, thank you so much, because in the early episodes, I sound like I don't give a shit about anything. I was just like, yeah, I was not working in a link, but I'm a lot. And this happened. You loved that. You know, it worked. I know people stay. It must have been for you at that point. If you stay, it probably not. If you stay. Let's face your own eyes at all. I don't know what it was. There's our charm. If you stayed, you're a real one.

You're the realist, right? I always did, but that sounds like it. It really, really hits.

Listen to the older episodes. How much you, how much you just like hung in there, what we put you through. It is crazy that it will be like a decade and not that many years. Yeah. That's not. It's crazy. I know. We'll have to like do something fun or something. And it feels like we're finally in like a, we're back to the early days fun part again.

Yeah, we had a little middle part there. We had a fucking journey.

You know, it's just your, you guys know. I lost years off my life, but I'm gaining them back right now.

I'm learning how to regulate my nervous system again. Yeah, which is a really fun thing. I actually was just saying, like, I wish that I could do, I've, I've said this so many times, but now I can even tell you, like, even more why. I wish I could do my wedding again. Yeah, because my court is all face up my wedding.

“Like, I still look phenomenal. Thank you. I did. I looked gorgeous. Good for you. Yeah, but I still wish I could do it again, because I think I would have even enjoyed it that much more, especially the planning process.”

Oh, yeah, because it was just because there was a lot going on. There was so much. It was a really disaster every day. There was like a family things going on too. Yeah. And then there was like work thing. Yep. That were literally constantly going on. So that was a lot.

I'm pretty sure the day of my wedding, a podcast came out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because we weren't no time off because no time off. Yeah. Just reminiscing, no time off, no creative, no creative control. Yes, nothing. Yeah. But you know what? That's in the past. And now we're doing things like playing radio city, fucking musical, which you guys got to come. We still have a few tickets left. Yeah. We got this one time. One time only. I literally just got my top choose delivered the other day. And we're really brainstorming some really cool ideas. And we have one in particular that we're hoping is going to happen.

And I'm excited about it. Oh, yes. It happens. That thing that I we can't say right now. I'll ship my pants. Go, go get your tickets. It's going to be fun. It's going to be me. And it's going to be a real good time. And it's one time only. And we only have some tickets left. So remember to get them at ticket master only. Yes, because both of the ones we said, yeah, it sounds good. It's going to be a fun. I can't wait. You owe me a coke. But you know what? You already bought me a coke today. Oh, yeah. I did it. So it's a interactive paid back. I like it. All right. What's up, girl? Oh wait tomorrow. Also stay tuned on bonus episode for a fun fucking bonus episode.

“One that I think you guys are going to be pretty excited. I don't know what it's about. I think you guys.”

I'm going to go. I'm just like that. And so stay tuned. I'm going to ask everyone's like, but have you know any struggles? That's a Easter dance. See if you can dissect that Taylor Swift level. Marketing. Marketing genius over here. Check it. Listen. Listen to that. Listen to that. And also go take a peek at my social media because there's some fun book stuff happening tomorrow. So go, go, you know, say you're warm. Go go for what? Go check it out. I don't know tomorrow. Oh, okay.

For 12 a.m. tonight got it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know tomorrow. Head on over tomorrow. To my to my Instagram page and I'll tell you. I'll tell you only. I'll tell you only. So get over there. So yeah. So that's all the business.

People are like, what the fuck are you guys on? So we had McDonald's today. And we took a walk. We took a walk and it went up different parts of our brain.

“And one point I just looked at everyone and I said, this is a great day guys. Yeah. So it has been there. We are now we're going to get a little nirally, though.”

And this is something about lions. Yeah, I sure did lions. So this is a little different because we know when I talked to you guys about the shark attacks in joy. See, you liked that.

You guys were like, that was pretty interesting. Yeah. And then some people said more animal attacks, please. And I said, okay. And then Dave said, got it.

He said, what about this one? Dave said, say less. He did. So we're going to talk about the many leaders of Savo today. What? That's right. You heard that right. I've never heard about it. So this one's wild. I bet this one's gruesome. It does have trigger warning. There are animal depths in it. And I'm just going to say it right now that I wish the I don't wish any human being to get hurt or mulled by an animal. But I do wish the animals just got to kind of go off and live their lives. And just kind of go away. You know? Yeah. That's just how I feel. Let's begin. In the spring of 1898. Oh, fuck. We're going away. Yeah. Let's go back. I wasn't even there. Colonel James Patterson arrived in East Africa to take up a position leading the construction staff on the Uganda Railroad, which was a very big infrastructure project based in Kalindi.

Kenya. Okay. I hope I said that correct. I looked up many pronunciation as one of the main waterways between Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

This whole region had been steeped in wars between competing interests, trying to gain control. But by that point, it was the British who held majority control and had set the project for full excited into motion. And they were really kind of largely relying on local labor managed by British officials. Okay. So after spending a week waiting on his orders, Patterson finally received a letter that told him he was going to go travel about 150 miles inland to a region called Sabo, which is a combo word, meaning place of slaughter.

Don't grow a therapy. Why would you name it that? Because apparently there had been so many wars and battles and things that had happened on this land. So he was going to go there to take command of a crew that was going to build a large railroad bridge over the Sabo river. Like much of Kenya at this time, Sabo was really dry. It was really arid. There was rivers and streams cutting through various sections of it. And in addition to the large population of Kenyans living in the area, it also was home to a very diverse population of wildlife.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. This was Bush elephants, giraffe, buffalo, hyena, jackal, rhinocerosis, rhinocerosis, rhinocerosis. I think it might be rhinocerosis.

“Is it rhinoceros? I think it is rhinoceros. You do? I don't know. Wow. I'm going to look it up, though. You should, Brian.”

Let's get smart. I like getting smarter. My brain is bad. This plural rhinoceros. I did not spell plural. It's okay. The plural is either rhinocerosis or rhinoceros. I like rhinoceros, but it kind of feels nice. It does. It's got a nice mouth feel. So we're talking of elephants. Me too. I would lay down my life for elephants. I also love elephants. My youngest just got a stuffed elephant that she made and she named her and she named them Ellie. And said, sometimes they're a boy, sometimes they're a girl. I said, okay, non-binary king and queen. Yeah, I said iconic Ellie. And it's not Ellie. Ellie. And that's not even due to any kind of speech and kind of that's just straight up name.

That's their straight up name. Don't get it twisted. No. So there's that. So while many of the species living in the region did pose a threat to humans, there were definitely not a lot that were as fierce and as dangerous. And as dangerous as the mainless lion, mainless lion you say. So this is a subspecies of big cat that evolved without the large fluffy maze.

“So now they feel like they have something to make up for. Well, here's the thing they evolved without the large fluffy main because it allows them to better survive the heat of the desert.”

Oh, they're actually like that's it. That's a little bit of a leg up. Yeah, that's really cool actually. I think it makes them less fluently looking because like when I see a big ol' lion with a big ol' man, I'm like, oh, God I touch it and I know I can't.

Because it's absolutely you know I got it just makes them look so those are the boys. The girls don't have that. Yeah, you just want to.

“You don't have her blue lion. You run into a lion's knot, but this new. Unless you're familiar with that lion and like you have a bond and and and you pooped at the snoop before because I'm not here to tell you to poop and you snoop.”

Now, we're a boop a snoop for the first time. Yeah, if you're not familiar with that lion, but these are main lists. So they to me look a little more villainous to be quite honest.

Okay. Without a main, it's like you're just a scary ass cat. Well, that's like the ladies and the ladies are more fierce. They're badass. I learned a lot about lions last time I went to Disney. I love that for you. Thank you. So establishing a path through the dense jungle to get to this area where they were going to your construction was not an easy task because you're not supposed to go there. We're not. We're really not. The jungle in Savo was densely forested. It was overgrown. It was filled with like snarled plant life, which included a species of like this like species of plant that has like a variety of different species that are covered in large hooked thorns and they're called wait a bit thorns.

Wait a bit. Wait a bit before you come up on this area. Yeah, or it's like you're going to get stuck in these thorns and then you're going to wait a bit to get out. So in that first week, much of Patterson's time was spent getting to know the area, just kind of familiarizing himself with the work, the crew, what was going to be happening. Yeah, and this obviously wasn't like super manually intensive. This wasn't like the labor that they were going to do. Yeah, it was still physically taxing and each night Patterson looked forward to going to sleep in the tent. He was like, this has been a long day.

“I look forward to going to sleep in my bed every day without doing much. And so if you got a tent, why not never have I ever looked forward to sleeping in a tent?”

No, never have I ever slept in a tent. There you go. But he would be exhausted. He said every single night, but he wrote in a journal. He kept a journal of everything.

So he wrote, I little knew then what adventures awaited me in this neighborhood. And if I'd realized that at the time two savage broots were prowling around seeking whom they might devour. I hardly think I would have slept so peacefully in my rickety shelter. What pros, right? So as soon as he derived in the camp, Patterson began hearing stories of men disappearing from camps in the area. Not what you want to hear, but also on arriving. At first he was like, well, okay, whatever. Like maybe they're just like legends, you know, you people love to talk shit. Like they're just trying to get me scared, you know, we all love it.

But after a few days it became kind of impossible to ignore the increasingly credible tales. He said all the old caravan leaders had disliked this camp for one reason or another. And it was a noted place for desertions. And in fact, very few of the caravan seemed to make it through the area without losing one or two of their porters. To the other men, the leaders of the caravan would usually provide a, you know, some kind of like whatever answer.

“I think about how the men had simply deserted them in the night and joined an easier route. That's why they're not here.”

But few of the remaining members of the caravan found that to be reasonable at all. Because who's going to work hard for several weeks? Only to abandon their camp and their belongings in the middle of the night. Fair. Like your bust in your ass for weeks at a time, just like peace out and leave everything.

Yeah. So a few weeks into the construction project, the crew had finally reached the west side of the Sava River.

When Patterson first heard that one of his crew had disappeared the night before. Oh, several others on the crew cited the stories of the other men who'd gone missing and insisted the missing worker had been carried off in the night by a lion. No, thank you. So Patterson said, "At the time I did not credit this story and was more inclined to believe that the unfortunate man had been the victim of foul play at the hands of some of his comrades. But nevertheless, workmen were a valuable resource, so Patterson immediately assembled a group of people to go search for him."

It didn't take long before his mind was changed. In speaking with the other men who shared a tent with the missing man, Patterson found one worker who witnessed the attack. Oh, fuck. It was around midnight, this guy said. And he said, "When a large, mainless lion poked its head through the flaps of the fucking tent." Anybody in here? And he quickly scanned the interior of the tent so that there were definitely people in there and grabbed the nearest worker.

His name was Ungen Singh, and he grabbed him by the throat. Oh, so Singh cried out, "Coro," which means let go. And wrapped his arm around the lion's neck trying to get him to release him, but the lion's grip was too tight and the other men in the tent just all they could do was watch and horror as their literal friend.

Oh my God.

“So Patterson and the other men in the search party grabbed their rifles and went to investigate the area outside of Singh's tent.”

And they found large paw prints in the sand and deep gashes in the earth, which showed them what direction that he was being dragged away. And he said, "We found it an easy matter to follow the route taken by the lion." As he appeared to have stopped several times before beginning his meal. Oh, the areas with the lion appeared to have paws were accompanied by pools of blood each larger than the last. Oh my God.

Finally less than a mile from the tent, they found Singh's body.

It was, they said it was unimaginable horror. That's, yeah. His body appeared to have been completely ripped apart with the flesh torn from all but his head and feet. Patterson wrote the ground all around was covered with blood and morsels of flesh and bones. But Singh's head had been left intact.

The eyes staring wide open with a startled horrified look in them. Oh my God. All around the body were paw prints similar to those found along the bloody path that led from the tent to the body.

“But similar, but they weren't all the same.”

And as they looked at the prints, it occurred to them that those were two distinct set of prints in the dirt. Indicating that, one lion definitely pulled him from the tent, but he had been killed in eaten by at least two. Oh my. Yeah. Patterson wrote, "I've witnessed many in accident with fatal consequences, but the sight of this skeleton from which the flesh had been ravenously torn was one of the most gruesome spectacles imaginable."

Also imagine you're standing there, like taking that all sitting duck, but that's the thing.

Exactly. You're sitting there where that group of lions are pair of lions just had a meal. Where the fuck are they now? Yeah. That's the thing.

They're not sitting or watching. Oh, that's horrifying. Now in his mind, Patterson began thinking about all the stories he had heard about men going missing from Caravans in the Savories region. And he was like, "Oh shit, is this the same group of lions that are responsible for those attacks?" And it seemed impossible because animal attacks didn't, you know, they happened from time to time, but they were like still exceedingly rare.

They still are. Yeah. Since most animals wanted nothing to do with humans who were just encroaching on their territory at this point. Now, at the riverbank, the men gathered up sings remains as best as they could, and they buried them in the sandy ground. They piled stones on it, because kind of like a grave marker.

His head, they placed in a burlap sack and brought back to camp in order to provide an identification to the medical officer. Oh, wow. Yeah. The next day, they returned to the area heavily armed, but there was no sign of the lions that he killed sing. But to their horror, as they searched the area, they found a lot of evidence of other attacks.

There were skulls and parts of skeletons littering the area.

But the fuck, he had definitely not been the first victim, and he was likely not going to be the last.

You guys got to get out of there. So that night, the workmen were uneasy in their tents. They were scared to sleep, and they were like, they could just be lurking right outside our tent, just waiting to pounce. James Patterson, on the other hand, took up a position in a near tree to the tent. I don't believe him.

And it was near the tent that Sing was taken out of.

“I think you got to think of all the animals like lime trees.”

Patterson is wild, because he's like the lead here. He's supposed to be like heading up this thing. He does take lead. Like he puts himself in positions to try to protect his crew. So he's up in a tree, and he said, if one of the lions returned that night, he was going to defend the camp, and he was going to kill it.

Okay. So several hours passed with no sight or sound of lions anywhere near the camp. So he was beginning to think, okay. He's not going to come back tonight. When out of nowhere, he heard, quote, a great uproar and frenzied cries coming from another camp about a half a mile away.

Uh-oh. The men at Patterson's camp knew they wouldn't be able to reach the camp in time to be of any use. And even if they were able to get there, none of them were really confident that they could fend off or fight off a landing lion. Yeah. The best they could do was find some comfort in the fact that, at least for tonight, they weren't going to see the lion.

Yeah. Like what is that unique? They're just like, I guess we can go to sleep. Yeah. So the next morning news reached his camp of the previous night's commotion, and it was what he had thought.

Another of his workers at the railroad head camp had been ripped away from his temp by a lion in the middle of the night. That evening Patterson took up a new position in a tree near the railroad head camp, and waited in the pouring rain for any sign of stalking lions.

He's like freezing, soaked to the bone.

“He's about to climb down from his position when he heard, quote, a heart-rending shriek indicating that there had been another attack.”

This time at a camp about a half a mile from a railroad head. Okay. What we're going to see is that the lions are bucking smart. Okay. It's like they know. Every time he moves to another one, they move away.

Or they'll go to the other one that he was just not at. It's like really crazy. It's like weird intelligence. Yeah. Now when the construction project began, the workmen were assigned to one of several camps scattered within an eight mile stretch along the river.

Lions are known to travel up to 12 miles a day to find food. Wow. That meant any of the men. In any of the camps along the Savo River could be prey. And there was no way to know which camp the lions were going to hit.

It was like, whack them all. Yeah. So just actually Googled it and lions are considered the most intelligent of big cats. That makes sense. Because this their intelligence in this situation, it's like they were watching and like they would kind of just like adjust their plans.

This actually says they excel at cooperative hunting, complex problem solving and observational learning. So they were literally observing and watching. They're learning. Self puzzles. Remember solutions for months.

“And they possess a larger frontal cortex regions, which is crucial for managing complex social bombs.”

That makes so much sense. That's actually very fascinating.

Because I always think like a lion pride is so interesting.

I always think like groups of animals and how they function are really really interesting. Like elephants are very intelligent too and they're very emotionally intelligent. Elephants have straight up funeral. Yes. And they like and their their communities are so interesting.

Yep. I could learn about that stuff for like a month. I love animals. I think it's so interesting. And I don't think we give them enough credit.

No. For how? Self-centered. Like us they are, but better than us they are. So many ways.

Yep. So at first Patterson spent night after night, just cycling between the camps with a rifle. Taking up positions and makeshift hunting blinds. Searching the landscape for any signs, just trying to keep his work or safe.

And the men also successfully petition to consolidate the camps as best they could.

Just try to keep them from being so spread out. And they built a sort of barrier around themselves winding the plants with weight a bit Thorns and around the perimeter for extra protection. All right. That was smart.

Unfortunately. But smart. However sensible. These efforts really didn't have a lot of effect on the two lines. They didn't go fuck.

I don't have to think they probably, I mean, they've lived there forever. So they can adapt to those kinds of things. They're hungry. So in Patterson wrote, they almost appeared to have an extraordinary and uncanny faculty of finding out our plans beforehand, which is exactly what we should talk about.

Now, in fact, whenever the men would put up an extra protection in one camp, or whichever camp Patterson chose to monitor, the lion seemed to instinctually know to stay away and would instead choose to attack another camp. Knowing that they couldn't possibly protect every camp equally every single night, Patterson began laying simple traps for the animals.

Sometimes you'd use livestock as bait at the perimeter of the camp, hoping the animal would attract the lions. Other times, he would lace the corpses of animals with strict nine and other poisons. Brother, just hoping that they would eat it and die, essentially. And like you can see why I know they're going to these lengths.

Like men are dying and like they're obviously. Like we'll see, they're getting very brazen. Yeah. But I want you to know that at the end of this, you're going to find out why they're being so brazen. And it might make you think a little differently about it.

They were really hungry. They were really hungry. And obviously, it's not okay. No, it's not okay. I've said this in the shark attack thing.

I think exactly that's understand. Yeah. My vibe here. I don't think anybody who takes this says like, Elena, hey, thanks.

Human should die by animal attacks and that animal should live. No, wrong. So it's just a bummer. Yeah. It's a bummer that they were encroaching.

They were doing a job that they were sent there to do. Right. But we are encroaching on animals land. And then these things happen when we encroach on animals land. And it sucks.

You know? So you can see he was just trying to protect his men. Mm-hmm. The animals are just trying to eat. It's really good.

It's the circle of life. Yeah. But yeah, it was sad. But none of these things caught the lions. And they didn't really prove effective.

In fact, Patterson wrote the beast, much preferred live men to dead donkeys. Wow. Which was like there. Well, I mean, like when a donkey dies, it's like the same thing.

“When a human dies, do you have a position starts to set in?”

So they probably taste a little fun. It's your favorite.

I'm sure they prefer fresh food.

“Now, given the amount of time and energy that James Patterson devoted to hunting these”

man-needing lions, you could easily forget that regardless of nocturnal terrors, there was a construction project going on during the day. They work crews conducted back-breaking exhausting manual labor, building a massive bridge across the river. The physical toll this work took on the body was immense.

Like we can't even end in the heat. And then think about the mental toll. With inadequate, I'm sure like supplies that they need to stay like as hydrated as they could be on this. You got to think about that for sure.

So it's like then they're going to sleep at night. They should be able to just plop down and pass out and let their body recover from what they've been going through. They can't.

And it's like in Patterson here is staying up in trees in the

Proof pouring rain all night trying to protect this camp and leading this project. And it's just the psychological strain of having become prey for an animal. Yeah. That's fucked. That's a lot.

“None of them felt equipped to protect themselves.”

And then they're dealing with this fight or flight thing. It's similar to like when there's a serial killer in your area. You know what I mean? It's time to rest and like recharge from your day. Yeah.

This is happening at night. It's like this is bad. Yeah. So the attempts to catch her kill the lions may have provided a sort of psychological distraction. At least from the sheer terror of being actively committed.

Yeah. But feeling proactive didn't really do a lot to stay off the reality. That it was only a matter of time before they made their way into the camps every night. Right. The men listened helplessly as the terrified cries coming from nearby camps went on and on and on.

As one or more of their co-workers were yanked out of bed and dragged away to their death. Oh my god. We'll find out one of these lions ate upwards of 20 men. Holy shit. Yeah.

So it was night after night. 20 men. And sometimes the victim will get lucky. One night in early April a Greek contractor managed to avoid the horrible fate. That is co-workers faced when the lion grabbed the mattress he was lying on.

Rather than him and he was able to roll off and escape before the lion realized that it was holding a mattress. Oh my god. But yeah. But more often than not, the lion struck with unbelievable speed and precision. They're just that's the other the other the other the other the other the other the other.

Yeah. They're highly a lot of all predators. Yeah. This is what they do.

So it gives the victim and the other men in the tent have no second to react.

They can't do anything. Also just imagine being the person like sleeping next to the person that gets dragged out of the tent. And you can't help them. You can't help them. Yeah.

You're like, I was that it was that close to me. And hearing them scream. How do you reconcile that exactly? According to Ronald Preston, who at the engineer managing the team at Railhead, by the end of April, the lion said killed, quote, "16 Punjabi workmen and one Punjabi headman."

Wow. So while the loss of life was obviously the primary issue in the camps, it wasn't the only challenge that was being posed by the lions. For the most part, an animal will really only kind of expend his little energy and effort as necessary to catch prey. Yeah. And this is pretty true for the Savo Man leaders too. Okay.

If they could simply stick their heads in through a flap of a tent and grab a man by the neck, that was simple for them. Like, they would do so and just be on their way. Other times, however, it seemed like the circumstances were like unfolding in a way that a simple attack. Like what would normally be a simple attack would escalate into pure chaos. And they would not really run away.

They would like the lions. Yeah, they would stay the course until they got it. Okay. Like one evening towards the end of April, one of the lions climbed high into a tree, a adjacent to a tent in which 14 workers were sleeping. And it leaped down onto the tent from above. No.

Crawled into a tree and jumped on top of the tent. Oh my god. Every night, my 80 pound dog jumps on me in bed to lay on me. And it's the scariest event in my life every time. And that's a little poot monster who's just there to snuggle me.

Brother, I'll do you one better. I have a 12 pound. Yeah. That scares the shit out of me on the nightly. 12 pounds.

How the fuck much does a lion walk. Whole ass man-eating lion jumps on your fucking tent.

“Can you imagine the chaos that broke out in that tent?”

No. Because now you can't see, you can't move.

Like you don't own it. And the whole last lion. And third genie. Another people.

“I need you to guess what a typical male lion generally weighs.”

Give me a little bit of a range between what and what. I'm trying to think. So my dogs are like 80 pounds each. Okay. So two of them are 160 pounds.

Yep. Between like... 200? No. And 250?

You know. Average adult male lions generally weigh between 330 and 570 pounds. And if it was a woman lion, I think they were at their boys. Were they boys?

Yeah. Well, just so you know, women lions average. 260 between 265 and 400 pounds. Holy shit.

“So like that might have just healed somebody.”

Just purely I've landed on them. Yeah. Holy shit. And just the fact that that lion.

First of all, thinking of a lion climbing up a tree.

I didn't know that they could climb. Scary shit. Like you can't get away from it by climbing up a tree. Imagine climbing up a tree and they end up in the lions like me too. Yeah.

I'll meet you up there. Like I'd be like, oh shit. Absolutely. And then for a lion to look down and be like, huh. I bet if I jumped on that, I could probably get them.

Oh my god. Like what the fuck? So it easily tore through the top of the tent. And it's claw caught one man in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. But and it's attempt to make a hasty escape because things go a little crazy.

The lion grabbed a large bag of rice and thought it was person at first. Lying on the ground next to the man and made off with the large bag of rice. Which also is bad because when they meet a food source, I know. The next day when the men searched the area, they found the bag of rice. A little less than a mile away and it was made of cloth.

That's why too. Yeah. And it was torn to shreds and the contents was just everywhere. Now and another failed yet still harrowing attack. And Indian trader was approaching one of the camps along with his donkey late one evening.

When one of the lions sprung from the underbrush and knocked them both to the ground with like incredible force.

The donkey was badly wounded by the claws of the lion. And the trader assumed the lion would make off with the donkey rather than fight the stronger prey. Right. And the trader quickly found out he was wrong though because the lion turned right to him. And literally like like haunches up like I'm going to attack.

But when the lion began to move his claws and forepaws were in the way he described this later. Was he said it was almost comical the way he was tangled in the donkey's reans. So because the donkey had like a bunch of empty oil tins and other pieces of metal like strong on his reans. So the lion was eventually able to rip the reans free from the donkey. But they were still tangled around his front legs.

Oh my god. And according to Patterson, the rattle and clatter made by these as he dragged them after him gave him such a fright that he turned tail and bolted off into the jungle to the intense relief of the trader. I mean that's great for the trader. But like the port in that lion was really so embarrassed. He was probably like fuck y'all.

I was going to eat you. You're an asshole. Oh my gosh. So among the workers, a legend emerged that these were not ordinary lions. But they were in fact shiitans, which it means demons.

Oh fuck. Others believe the lions were physical manifestations of the spirits of long dead local tribal leaders who were angry with the British for invading and altering the region with their construction work. Or maybe there's just lions that are upset that you're interrupting. There's also that possibility. That seems to be simple.

These were. So these beliefs came out of like the behavior of the animals, which was definitely more aggressive and more assertive than ordinary lions. Yeah. And the lengths that they would go to attack and eat humans and how consistent they were. That was different because there was other prey available.

Yeah. So they're like, there's like wild beasts over there. That's like your favorite thing in the world.

“Why are you not eating those and you're coming to us?”

Well, there's so much bigger too. That's like they're like satisfied. We are not lions like choice prey. No. Like a given us and like a will to be stir us and something else.

They'll take the other thing every time. Yeah.

So by the summer, complaints about the attacks and the missing workers had finally reached such a fever pitch that the British authorities had to address the fears of further attacks.

In July, the company responsible for the project, the British East Africa company, offered a 200 rupee reward for, and this is a quote, "The skin of any lion shown to the satisfaction of the managers to have been destroyed within one mile on either side of the railway line,

It's one thing to kill an animal for your protection.

Yeah. That, you know, you know how we feel. Yeah. It's another thing to skin a fine man. I'm sorry, but go fucking yourself.

I don't get it. You like, like this is the 1800s. I'm so sorry. It was well, so upsetting.

“Now in a region that frequently struggled with poverty as well,”

this bounty on my hands attracted a large number of hunters. Because again, they're like struggling just to feed themselves. Like a 200 rupee reward is huge. And so like a ton of hunters and would be hunters came to the area, all hoping to claim the reward. And it was likely the dramatic increase in people in noise.

That actually ended up keeping the Savo man eaters, quote unquote, away for so many months. Because they did stay away for quite some time. They said fuck that. I know y'all are up to real smart. Right.

Because these lions are clever. They would know better than to return to an area where the sounds of rifles could be heard every few minutes. Yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to think I'm all set with that. The presence of so many hunters and the lions failure to appear night after night,

allowed the workmen, at least to relax for the first time since the project began.

But because of that, they let their guard down.

“And so when they did return, which they did, they were not prepared.”

After nearly six months of relative peace. Wow. Yeah. The attacks began again in Patterson's camps one night in early November. He wrote on this occasion a number of men had been sleeping outside their tents for the sake of coolness.

And they let their guard down. Yep. He said when the men heard one of the lions forcing its way into the Beaumont, which was the animal pen where they were sleeping. He said all the men leap to their feet and raise the alarm to alert the rest of the camp.

Then they took up whatever weapons they could find to try to protect themselves. This was like rock sticks, just hurling them in the direction of the lions, just trying to protect themselves. Unfortunately, the noise and throne objects had no effect on the lion. A few moments later, the lion burst into the middle of the group of men and just grabbed one and dragged him off through the thorny fence and into the darkness. So the lion just launched himself into the middle of a ton of men.

And just grabbed the nearest one. That's not. Yeah. That's insane.

“The entire camp listened with horror as two lions devoured this man, not more than 30 yards away from the camp.”

Now the return of the lions was disheartening, obviously, because they really were hoping they would have peace. But it wasn't just the return that shook up the men. It was now how fucking bold they were. So in the past, one lion would sneak silently into the camps. Grab the unsuspecting prey, then drag the men nearly a mile away from camp before killing a needing him.

Now the lions were aggressively forcing their way into the camps, like barreling through any protective measures, and attacking large groups of armed men, paying no attention to the loud sounds and throne objects and not going us. And then grabbing the prey, the barely would wait until they were outside a camp before killing a needing him. So the next morning, Patterson discovered the remains of this man, less than 50 yards outside the camp. Unlike the previous attacks, he refused to let the men bury the remains.

This time, hoping the animal would return that night. Posted in his tree, he waited, but that night. But the only animal that came around was a hyena. And the hyena sniffed the remains and then ran off. So the next morning, he received word that the lions had attacked another camp, two miles down the river.

Okay. Same night. Night after night, he sat in the trees outside the camps along the river. Listening is the men shouted their warnings from one camp to the next. And the warning that you would often hear, and I'm going to try my best to say this correctly,

was Kabar, Dar, Bayon, Ashetan, Atah, which is beware brothers, the devil is coming. Oh, and they would be like yelling this to each other. Oh, that's so chilling.

But for at least one of the camps, the warnings always came way too late.

And one among them was inevitably dragged away in the middle of the night. So these lions are getting more and more brazen by the day, it seemed. And one evening, one of them grabbed a man from the railway and actually brought him closer to the camp, rather than far away in order to eat him. What?

Yeah. Patterson wrote, "I could plainly hear them crunching the bones." Oh, my God. And the sound of their dreadful perring filled the air and rang in my ears for days after all.

I thought to think of them perring. Like that's so messed up in the crunching bones. By mid-November, the lions changed their strategy yet again, and another display of boldness.

Again, with sneak in the camp, the other would wait in the bush, a distance away. Now, they were entering together.

“So now it wasn't just one bringing it out of both.”

They said, "We don't need a worm." Sometimes now, grabbing multiple victims, because now each lion would grab one. Yeah.

This new strategy didn't always work out very well for the animals, or for the victims on that matter.

On one night in late November, the lions attacked one of the camps and dragged away two men into the dark. Each one. From inside the camp, the workmen could hear one of the men moaning in pain, just outside the camp. And when they finally mustard up, the courage to go out and look for him. They found that he was badly mulled, but he was stuck in the thorny underbrush, a few dozen yards away from camp.

It looked like he had become stuck there, and the lion wasn't able to drag him through. So they left him and just went to consume the other victim.

“The workmen were able to untangle him from the bushes, but he died from its injuries.”

I was going to save the thought of getting mulled by a lion, and then that stuck in thorny underbrush. Yeah. Oh, my god. Yeah.

By the beginning of December, the workmen on Patterson's crew had finally had enough.

One afternoon when they returned to his camp, Patterson found the entire construction crew standing there waiting for him. They said they'd come from India to work and get paid. And they said, "We did not come here to get attacked and even buy lions." And they said, "We are not going to work until these lions are gone." I mean, I didn't blame them. This is terrifying.

Yeah. I would just, I'd be like, "We're not doing this." Well, many of them didn't even bother with the ultimatum. They just waited for the next strain to pass. Hop to board and said, "By that would be me." Somewhere else is better than here. That would be me. To his credit, Patterson did take this ultimatum very seriously.

And in the weeks after this, all work on the railroad ceased while they focused on lion proofing the camps. So he just stopped the work because we're going to figure this out. So Patterson's persistence over the previous year finally paid off in December. On the morning of December 9, he was leaving his camp when he saw one of the men running towards him, frantically shouting "Simba, Simba," which means lion.

I know. So you sing lion lion and waving his arms above his hand, frantically. When he reached the camp, he told Patterson that the lions had attempted to grab one of the workmen down by the river. And when he escaped, they killed the donkey instead, and were currently eating it. Okay. So knowing he might not have a better opportunity, he grabbed his rifle and followed this man back to the river. When they reached the banks of the river, he saw that one of the lions was eating a donkey by the rauder.

Unfortunately, as he approached quietly, one of his guides stepped on a branch and caused it to snap. Like horror movie, no, no. Literally, so the noise alerted the lion, who looked up in their direction, growled and then dragged the carcass of the donkey into deep underbrush. Like just like fuck. He literally said fuck y'all. That's exactly what I was going to say.

Like you know that Homer Simpson gave four to the bush.

“That's what the lion said, you saw nothing, no. So, of course Patterson is terror. He's like, I'm going to lose this animal.”

It's right there. Like I could end this. So he instructed the man to return to the camp, gather up the other men, and all the cans, pots, and pans they could find.

And he said, this plan is to have the men surround the area, and simultaneously cause incredible noise that would send the animal running in his direction.

Which was pretty smart. Pretty smart and very brave. Yeah. So Patterson crouched down behind a large ant hill, not far from where they had seen the lion. And when all the men were in position, he gave the single signal. And he wrote, soon a tremendous noise was raised by the advancing line of men. And to my great joy out into the open path, stepped a huge, mainless lion.

After tracking the animals for nearly a year, and he was really only catching glimpses of them in the darkness at this point. Right. He said, seeing one of these in daylight on incredible. Yeah, it was horrifying. When the lion got within 15 yards, he emerged from his hiding place and took aim. And his sudden appearance startled the lion, obviously, who dug in its claws and crouched back on its onches, and he was ready to leap at him.

Patterson pulled the trigger, but to his absolute horror, he heard that dull thud, a rifle makes when it misfires. Oh, he said, I was so disconcerted at this untoward accident that I forgot all about firing the left barrel. And with the intention of reloading, I lowered the rifle from my shoulder. Thinking the animal would use the opportunity to attack Patterson, he was surprised when it instead ran into the bush.

And he said, he heard an angry growl that said that he did hit him.

“But he said, but when he went to check the area, the lion had escaped.”

But he's like, I think I hit him. Now, determined to end the terror, he went back to where the donkey lay in the brush by the river and took up a position in one of the trees, hoping the lions would come back for that. Okay. Several hours later, after the sun went down, he heard the sound of snapping twigs and realized one of them had come back. But rather than go back to the carcass, as Patterson thought he would, the lion sniffed the air for a few moments, then admitted a low growl.

And that was indicating that he sensed his presence. Yeah. So he literally sniffed him out in the air, was like, I'm going to fuck you up. So to Patterson surprised, the lion ignored the donkey carcass totally in the available food. Right there, and instead begins searching the area for him and they can climb trees.

And he said, for about two hours, he horrified me by slowly creeping round and round my crazy structure, gradually drawing closer. Oh my god.

“For hours, he sat silently in the street, desperately trying not to make even a sound, literally move a muscle.”

His translike state was finally broken when some time after midnight. He was struck in the back of the head by something large.

And at first, because he kind of zoned out, because he was trying to just like really zone, he thought the lion had come up and had actually found him. But then he realized he had been struck by a large owl. I love owls. What the fuck are the odds of times? They're working together, baby. I'm like, mother nature is just like doing it, mother nature is like getting out of here.

Like what the fuck? So large owl just fucking just wall up to him in the head. The jolt caused him to look around frantically and he realized the lion was crouched down in the brush just a few yards away. He could see his yellow eyes staring directly at him. Oh fuck. Certainness was going to be his absolute last chance. He fired the rifle and he hit the lion directly in the chest.

Patterson wrote he gave a most terrific roar and leaped and sprang about in all directions.

“The lion had retreated into the brush and was likely trying to escape, so he did fire again in his direction.”

And finally a few moments later, he heard the last of the lion's breaths. And it was okay. But I'm going to actually cry. No, it's really sad. It's really sad.

That's the part that I don't like about these stories too.

I always kill the animal for doing what animals would do. I know. Like I know, this is a very extreme case.

And again, I don't like that all over here. People were killed, but I'm really fucking sorry. It's just a lot of sadness. So when Patterson finally got a good look at the lion, he was truly impressed. He said it was nearly 10 feet long.

Holy shit. Four feet high larger than an average lion. Yeah, and aside from the obvious scars from the thorn brushes, he was unblemished, like a beautiful lion. And as Patterson had assumed, the first shot struck him in the heart. And one of the subsequent shots had hit him in the thigh.

Oh my god, you're actually going to make me cry now. When the news of the death reached the camp, several men arrived at the site and they brought the animal back to the camp.

So a few days later, Patterson set out a trap for the second lion,

playing three, and this is three goats to a 250 pound rail. If you try to do that, I love goats. A few hours later, the lion appeared and grabbed one of the goats in that gave Patterson a chance to fire. Unfortunately, when he fired, the shot hit the lion and the shoulder, not the head. And the shot barely managed to slow him down and he took off into the brush.

And he dragged all three goats in the rail with him. He said, "I'll take it all. This is not the lion." So the shot might not have done its job, but it did seem to drive him off, and it wasn't seen again for more than a week. On the evening of December 26, the lion appeared again at one of the camps, and it managed to get through the thorny fencing and into the camp,

where it tore through several tents and destroyed much of the site, but it failed to attack any of the men. Okay, believing the injured animal might make a return to the same camp, he set up a Patterson set up a blind and one of the trees near the camp and waited. A few hours later, the lion appeared, and he shot the animal, killing it instantly. Which is really sad.

It is really sad. In the years that followed the attacks, the legend of the Savo Man eaters continued to spread and grow. By the time the story reached its peak popularity, it was said that the lions killed and devoured hundreds of men. A worker on the railway wrote hundreds of men fell victim to the savage creatures whose very jaws were steeped in blood.

In reality, attacks on humans by large predators are extremely rare, because we are not part of any predators diet.

And we pose a massive threat to every other species. And Ross Barnett, a paleo geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, said, "What strikes me about the Savo stories, that it is almost incomprehensible to a 21st century western mindset." Yeah. The terror that the night must have brought is unimaginable. No, it really is.

It really is. So if humans are not part of a lion's diet, and we're actually pretty hard to catch, what we have to go through a lot. Why the fuck did they hunt and kill so many men?

“Was there some kind of shortage going on? So like wildebeest?”

It turns out, like most repeated large cat attacks on humans, the explanation for these attacks were found in the animal's mouths. In a recent scientific study of the Savo line skeletons, which by the way are on display at the field museum of natural history in Chicago. Savo, like S avio, T s avio, zoologist discovered that both lions had damaged teeth, even without causing illness from infection, which was likely. Broken and damaged teeth can make it difficult or extremely painful for an animal to consume its regular diet.

So it switches to something it can catch an eat. So the theory, and this is also interesting, the theory was supported by a DNA analysis of the lion's hair, which found the animals had not consumed any wildebeest, which is its favorite prey, and had otherwise been eating slower softer animals. So Riley Black from Smithsonian magazine in 2017 wrote, "Human's were a food of last resort, and the lions were primarily focused on the soft parts." These were not devilish skeleton crunchers, but injured cats doing what they could to survive.

That makes it even more... Additional information, this is really this made me sad, because I'm so no. Additional information from the study revealed that these two lions were likely brothers. I need you to shut up. The fact that they had each other's DNA and their teeth suggests that the lions were closely bonded and spent time grooming one another.

I'm actually not built for this.

So when that first lion died, it makes me so sad for that second one.

I can't do that. I can't do that.

“Now, as for how many victims the lions took, according to zoologist Bruce Patterson, one lion ate ten people in the other 24.”

It's a lot of people. As for John Henry Patterson, his killing of the man-eating lions did make him a local hero, and somewhat of a legend. With the threat removed, the crews were able to go back to work, and the railroad bridge was completed. It was in February 1899, and when the project was finished, Patterson served towards a duty in the second bower war, and World War I, among other conflicts. I also found town to begin a writing career, and he started with his account of the Savo Man-eater attacks, followed by several other adventure novels.

Wow. Following his retirement from the military, he focused really on writing, and he also traveled the world giving lectures about wildlife and big game. On June 18-1949, Jesus Patterson died of natural causes in Beller, California at the age of 79. Wow. What a life.

And that he did protect his crew. He did. So there's that. I know.

I feel bad for the lions.

I feel bad for obviously the men that had to go through. It's the same thing as the shark attack. It's a bad for a woman. It's awful for you. I just...

I know.

“Something in me, like, I can't hear about animal death.”

Like, animals are innocent. They are. They don't have the gnarly, you know, unless it's a narco whale. I feel like Orca's have great hope. But you know what?

You know what? You know what? We like wrong the most. I'm feeling like we probably did. Like we probably need them now.

I'm not saying narco whales are like wrong. I'm just saying they are all the same. They have instincts that we are not. But they're not supposed to have. Like they have a...

It's like I say it's a lot. No, they do. It's like I say the ocean's not for. No, it's not. And they're trying to...

They're trying to... Stand there. I need to know... I need to more fucking terrifying ocean stories. Yeah, I like the ocean is fun.

Because I love cats. I know. And, like, I love lions. Lions are just like big cats. One of my kids loves lions.

I know. She would always have. So make her so mad. She'd be like, "Let them go." I know.

That one was covered. Who got us a top one for me? Yeah. We got to space these out. Because...

Yeah. Very interesting. No, especially like the issue with their teeth.

And they were going after.

And just the...

“The fact that these men were just yanked out of tents in the middle of the night.”

It's like... I'm so fucked up. Like that. I don't want to take away. Yeah.

I know I've been harping a lot on the animals. But that is incredible. Yeah, they're just up. And again, they're sleeping. Like the exhausted...

The exhausting day of manual labor. It's like... Bok. That sounds like hell on earth. It's also good to remind yourself too that they weren't like a shit.

And a job's back then. No, that's the other thing they were desperate for. They couldn't leave money for their family. The ones who are leaving are the ones who... Literally can't handle it.

Like that was broken down. Like that was broken down. You know how bad it was for some of them to be like buck that. Anywhere else is better than this. To be faced with the possibility of being eaten by a line.

In a middle of the night. Things are bad. That's rough. If you're willing to stick that out. That's pretty fucking brutal.

Yeah. Well, then you think of how many men did stick it out. Exactly. Millions of land degrees where they are in Africa. And like that night, they were just trying to sleep in a cool area.

Yeah.

Because it's like a billion degrees in your sitting dock.

Fuck. Yeah. What a story. That was very fascinating. I also didn't know about mainland science.

I didn't know about mainland science. So that's the mainland science thing. They're beautiful. They are. I was just looking at pictures.

Oh, lines are gorgeous. When I say I just want to... I just want to struggle. I just want to struggle. I know what they would.

But don't. No. Don't do that. I won't.

“Remember when we went to Disney together.”

And we heard the Lion War on the Safari. That was an early day. That was the craziest thing I've ever experienced. Lion wars are life changing. Oh.

Because they're just down. Like when that movie starts. Yeah. You know, like those movies. I love that movie.

That one movie. I don't know. What is this movie? What production is that? It's the raw.

The fucking. I'm just looking at it in my head. I am too. I'm watching it in my head. What is the production company that has the Lion?

Is it MGN? I think it's MGN. I can see it in my head. I think you're exactly right. Yeah.

Hi, Karen and Georgia. Yeah, it is MGN. Yeah. I thought so. Did you say hey Karen and Georgia?

Yeah, because I said you're exactly right. Oh, okay. I thought you were thinking MFM. Oh, no. And I was like.

I was like you're exactly right. Then I said hey Karen and Georgia. Okay. That was insane. Yeah.

That was wild. I have a fun fact. I love fun facts. It's kind of a morbid fact to be honest with you. I mean, this is what the show is.

I got this from Cosmopolitan. Chain saws were first invented. Oh, I know this. I had a feeling you might have this. For childbirth.

Yeah. They were developed in Scotland in the late 18th century to help aid and speed up the process of a symphysiology, which is widening the pubic cartilage and the removal of disease ladden bone during childbirth. That's horrifying.

What the fuck. Yeah. You knew that. I had a why don't I know you were going to do that. You said that ahead of time, too.

I did always tell probably all this.

You might know this. Yeah. That is a crazy crazy. I want to know a lot more about that. But like also nothing else in that thing at all.

At the same time. Yeah. What would you. Can you imagine? Like I've never given birth.

You've done it twice. Like three times technically. Yeah. Well, what would you do if you were to just let laying there and they're like. You know, it's on the sound of a chainsaw is terrifying.

Yeah. That's the end of every haunted house ever. God. It's like my least favorite part of the haunted house. Oh, my God.

I hate it.

“I think of that coming anywhere near your situation.”

Your downstairs mix up. That's going to become a downstairs mix up at that point. It's going to become a downstairs catastrophe. You're getting a downstairs. A downstairs.

A downstairs. A downstairs. A downstairs. I'm trying to think of a d-word. A downstairs disaster thing.

And with that we leave you. What are you going to unenge for getting middle and outward? Lord. Well, we help you keep listening. And we help you keep it.

Wee! But that's where the user chainsaw during traffic. Because holy fuck. And don't poop a lot. Yeah.

I know it's hard. I want to find a lie in right now. I'm just not a fan. I'm just a lot, I'm just a lot. I'm just a lot.

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