(Please refresh for an update.)
The plaque says:
"These Lions Stopped a Railroad"
In March 1898 the British started building a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in East Africa. Over the next nine months, two large male lions killed and ate over 140 railway workers. Crews tried to scare off the lions and built campfires and thorn fences for protections, but it was to no avail. Hundreds of workers fled Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge.
Before work could resume, dhief enginner Lt. Col. John Henry Patterosn (1865 - 1947) had to elminate the lions' threat. After many near misses, he finally shot the first one on December 9, 1898, and three weeks later brought down the second. The crew returned and complete the bridge in February 1899.
(The 1996 movie The Ghost in the Darkness was based on Patterson's adventures in Tsavo.)
"Lions Rarely Eat People"
[ Sorry, my picture is fuzzy and I can only make out a few words of this paragraph. :/ ]
"The Lions Come to the Field Museum"
After completing the railroad, Patterson became chief game warden in Kenya and later served with the British Army in World War I. He published four books and lectured widely on his adventures. After speaking at the Field Museum in 1924, Patterson sold the lions skins and skulls for the then sizable sum of $5,000. [ I would estimate about $100,00 in today's money. ]
The skins arrived in less-than-perfect conditions--old and try, they had been cut down into rugs. (In real life, the lions were much larger than they appear here.) The skins were also blemished by gunshot wounds and thorn scratches. Museum taxidermist Aolias Frecsec [ sp? ] did an extraordinary job creating thse life-like mounts.
You can view them at the Field Muserum in Chicago!
For more about them check out 's news paper article here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/706...../#cid:50545567
Submited by
Info by harui
The plaque says:
"These Lions Stopped a Railroad"
In March 1898 the British started building a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in East Africa. Over the next nine months, two large male lions killed and ate over 140 railway workers. Crews tried to scare off the lions and built campfires and thorn fences for protections, but it was to no avail. Hundreds of workers fled Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge.
Before work could resume, dhief enginner Lt. Col. John Henry Patterosn (1865 - 1947) had to elminate the lions' threat. After many near misses, he finally shot the first one on December 9, 1898, and three weeks later brought down the second. The crew returned and complete the bridge in February 1899.
(The 1996 movie The Ghost in the Darkness was based on Patterson's adventures in Tsavo.)
"Lions Rarely Eat People"
[ Sorry, my picture is fuzzy and I can only make out a few words of this paragraph. :/ ]
"The Lions Come to the Field Museum"
After completing the railroad, Patterson became chief game warden in Kenya and later served with the British Army in World War I. He published four books and lectured widely on his adventures. After speaking at the Field Museum in 1924, Patterson sold the lions skins and skulls for the then sizable sum of $5,000. [ I would estimate about $100,00 in today's money. ]
The skins arrived in less-than-perfect conditions--old and try, they had been cut down into rugs. (In real life, the lions were much larger than they appear here.) The skins were also blemished by gunshot wounds and thorn scratches. Museum taxidermist Aolias Frecsec [ sp? ] did an extraordinary job creating thse life-like mounts.
You can view them at the Field Muserum in Chicago!
For more about them check out 's news paper article here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/706...../#cid:50545567
Submited by
Info by harui
Category Photography / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Lion
Gender Male
Size 1024 x 768px
I just heard about these lions in a comic called Paradigm Shift, good kitties.
The Ghost and the Darkness...surprisingly accurate movie, at least as far as the lions' behavior was portrayed.
Interesting thing also is that one of my best friends lives in South Africa and he knows about the lions of Tsavo. And the interesting thing he told me is several of the tribes have noticed that kind of behavior in lions before and it does happen on occasion, specifically when the lions are overpopulated and even the ones who are well-fed may indulge. They also do hunt for sport at times, the natives are pretty sure that has to do with them keeping their skills and senses sharp and "practicing" the kill...So who's up for a trip to Africa? XD
It does happen yeah. Even knowing all that I'd still go! Big cats are just too amazing, I work with their smaller much more domestic cousins x3 they all love me I am forever being rubbed at & nibbled or getting face licks....woild be interesting for a close encounter of the wild-cat side! =^w^=
Oh what gets interesting is the lion cubs are, of course, just like kittens and they're very playful even towards humans. Also Cheetahs are practically tame and there are a lot of places in South Africa where they'll let you (under certain condition) actually pet a cheetah!
ah the demons of Tsavo, first known (in modern lore) in a large line of lion murder rampages (there have been a few since actually...)
It's sad but humans and preditors can not live together in harmony...
Because humans are small enough and slow enough that they're considered prey animals
and because humans are smart enough to think themselve the he-bull of the foodchain and can not stand something preying on them... or competition...
It's sad but humans and preditors can not live together in harmony...
Because humans are small enough and slow enough that they're considered prey animals
and because humans are smart enough to think themselve the he-bull of the foodchain and can not stand something preying on them... or competition...
Comments