A century after the infamous Tsavo lions were added to the Field Museum’s collection, scientists continue to uncover new details about the predators that once terrorized railway workers in Kenya.
Wednesday marked the 100th anniversary of the lions going on display at the museum.
“These lions are among the most famous museum specimens in the world,” Julian Kerbis Peterhans, a professor at Roosevelt University and an adjunct curator at the Field Museum, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “New technology keeps revealing more insights — just like a cold case reopened with modern forensic tools.”
The lions, which reportedly killed and ate dozens of workers in 1898, were shot by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, who was commissioned by the Uganda Railway committee to oversee the railway’s project over the Tsavo River. Their skins were turned into rugs before being sold to the museum in 1925 for $5,000 — equivalent to about $90,000 today.
Over the past decades, scientists at the Field Museum have examined the lions’ skulls and teeth to better understand their behavior. A major discovery was a severe tooth abscess in one of the lions, which could have made hunting traditional prey difficult.
“Humans are much easier to catch,” Peterhans said. “If a lion is in pain and struggling to take down zebras or buffalo, it makes sense that it would go after something slower.”
Recent DNA analysis of hairs trapped in the lions’ broken teeth confirmed their diet included zebras, giraffes, wildebeests — and humans.
While the Tsavo lions’ reputation as man-eaters is well-documented, research has challenged some long-standing assumptions. One notable finding from the study is that despite being male, the lions had no manes.
“People expect male lions to have full, thick manes, but that’s not the case in Tsavo,” Peterhans said. “The hot and humid climate there makes it impractical. If you transported these lions to Chicago, they would likely develop manes.”
An area of ongoing study is whether more than two lions were involved in the attacks.
“If that’s true, the hair analysis should provide evidence, because lions groom each other, and their fur accumulates in their mouths,” Peterhans said. “If we find evidence of three distinct lions, it would change what we know about their social behavior.”
Despite their notoriety, the Tsavo lions are an exception — modern lion attacks on humans are rare.
“Lions typically don’t target people, and today, humans are more of a threat to lions than the other way around,” Peterhans said. “Studying the Tsavo lions helps us understand how humans and wildlife can coexist.”