I Love Facts About Animals
This is probably one of the most unusual accounts of animal behaviour i've ever heard of.
In 1898 the european colonizers are locked in a struggle for transportation across large parts of Africa, Both the British, German and others are trying to build railways as fast as possible to ensure their dominance.
In a place called Tsaavo, the British are progressing steadily and have just brought in a new engineer/hunter named Patterson to build a bridge over a strategic river.
Shortly after, the camp of the workers starts suffering seemingly random lion attacks, not only are they far more frequent than any normal hunting style of lions, but there's two of them hunting together, something that never normally happens.
Superstition starts to develop as the attacks keep coming, the lions kill for pleasure, not eating their prey, but instead killing it and then moving on to kill more. The workers start to believe that the lions are the spirits of ancient medicine men coming back to collect them all, they begin calling them The Ghost and the Darkness.
after many days of repeated and brutal attacks, they are finally killed by Patterson, only after having found the lion's lair, littered with the bones of the prey they've dragged back there, something no other lion would ever do.
Although disputed, Patterson estimated over 130 had been killed by the Ghost and the Darkness.
Probably the most clearcut case of nature fighting back i've seen, and a result of the lions being overexposed to people, changed them into something different.
I found it to be a fascinating story, and enjoyed the movie as well :)
In 1898 the european colonizers are locked in a struggle for transportation across large parts of Africa, Both the British, German and others are trying to build railways as fast as possible to ensure their dominance.
In a place called Tsaavo, the British are progressing steadily and have just brought in a new engineer/hunter named Patterson to build a bridge over a strategic river.
Shortly after, the camp of the workers starts suffering seemingly random lion attacks, not only are they far more frequent than any normal hunting style of lions, but there's two of them hunting together, something that never normally happens.
Superstition starts to develop as the attacks keep coming, the lions kill for pleasure, not eating their prey, but instead killing it and then moving on to kill more. The workers start to believe that the lions are the spirits of ancient medicine men coming back to collect them all, they begin calling them The Ghost and the Darkness.
after many days of repeated and brutal attacks, they are finally killed by Patterson, only after having found the lion's lair, littered with the bones of the prey they've dragged back there, something no other lion would ever do.
Although disputed, Patterson estimated over 130 had been killed by the Ghost and the Darkness.
Probably the most clearcut case of nature fighting back i've seen, and a result of the lions being overexposed to people, changed them into something different.
I found it to be a fascinating story, and enjoyed the movie as well :)
26-30, M
