![lions eating prey lions eating prey](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/big-male-lion-gorgeous-mane-eating-prey-national-park-kenya-tanzania-maasai-mara-serengeti-excellent-illustration-79059822.jpg)
The skull evinced craniodental pathologies, including malocclusion of the jaws and a fractured lower right canine ( 17) ( Fig. Patterson D.S.O., a British officer and engineer, killed lion FMNH 23970 (Field Museum of Natural History) ( Fig. The death toll was later revised to 135 humans ( 15), although the accuracy of this value has been challenged ( 12). The intensity of human predation (up to 30% reliance during the final months of 1898) is also associated with severe craniodental infirmities, which may have further promoted the inclusion of unconventional prey under perturbed environmental conditions.įrom March to December 1898, a coalition of two male lions (as inferred by paired track marks and frequent sightings) ( 15) killed 28 laborers and “scores of unfortunate African natives” during the construction of the railway through Tsavo ( 16). These findings not only support the hypothesis that prey scarcity drives individual dietary specialization, but also demonstrate that sustained dietary individuality can exist within a cooperative framework. For one lion, the δ 13C and δ 15N values of bone collagen and hair keratin (which reflect dietary inputs over years and months, respectively) reveal isotopic changes that are consistent with a progressive dietary specialization on humans. Here we use stable isotope ratios to quantify increasing dietary specialization on novel prey during a time of food limitation.
#Lions eating prey full#
Yet the full extent of the lions' man-eating behavior is unknown estimates range widely from 28 to 135 victims. The “man-eaters of Tsavo” have since become the subject of numerous popular accounts, including three Hollywood films.
![lions eating prey lions eating prey](https://lionalert.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Lions-charging-at-an-animal.jpg)
In a notorious case, a coalition of two adult male lions from Tsavo, southern Kenya, cooperatively killed dozens of railway workers in 1898. Cooperation is the cornerstone of lion social behavior.