Hunting the Hunters

Even high, thorny wood fences around the workers’ camps in the Tsavo (TSAH-voe) River area did not stop the big cats. They jumped over the fences and dragged their prey right through the thorns to escape. No one knew where they would strike next. John Patterson, the railroad project’s supervisor, felt responsible for the safety of the workers, so he went after the lions. For weeks he stalked the pair, but they always managed to elude him. Stories grew about the lions’ cleverness. Their nightly killings continued.

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Text by Margaret Zackowitz
Photograph by Robert Caputo (lion)