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).


Almost made it   November 15, 2003
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

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.


Engaging look at unusual lions   May 10, 2003
 17 out of 17 found this review helpful

"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.

Jake Mohlman