Book review

Just finished "Ghosts of Tsavo" by Philip Caputo.

In 1898, during construction of of a railway, two rogue lions preyed upon the workers. They killed 135 people, over a nine-month period. They were, finally killed by the superintendant of the project and their skeletons and hides were donated to the Field Museum in Chicago.

The lions, in the area are notable for their large size, lack of manes and man-eating proclivities.

The author accompanied researchers, who were studying these lions, to find out why they are maneless and why they are more likely to become man-eaters. No real conclusions were drawn, due to the restrictions imposed by the political climate of East Africa but, the various hypotheses are interesting.

Overall, this is an excellent book, for people who are interested in all kinds of cats.

That sounds just like a film I've seen, called "The Ghost and the Darkness" with Val Kilmer in.... its really good, if you like that book, I'm sure you'll like the film

Cindy - who's it published by? This sound really interesting.

Bod & all,

That IS the story the movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" was made about. I don't know if it was exactly that book, but it certainly made for quite a remarkable and recommendable movie.

Bill

I read about those particular lions in a book by Peter Hathaway Capstick. He was a bwana or "great white hunter." It was always my Dad's dream to go on a safari in Africa, so always had books on the subject around. If you are totally anti-hunting, don't read him. You will not like it. However, if you can remember that this was a slightly different time when these animals were not on an endangered species list, and that it was the poachers not organized safari hunters that caused this problem, then I highly recommend any of his books. They have titles like Death in the Long Grass but they are not refering to the death caused by the hunters, but to the natural cycles of life and death in Africa. He has an amazing knowledge of African animals. One other thing...in his books, sometimes the hunters win, sometimes the animals win.

This book was published by the National Geographic Society. There have been several films about those lions and the railway.

The man who killed them wrote a book, "The Man-eaters of Tsavo", published in 1907. According the Mr. Caputo, that book is still in print. I'm going to see of the library has it.

I think I saw that movie!! Didn't it have Michael Douglas in it as well as Val Kilmer? It was a great movie! I'm sure the book is good as well!!!