Night Stalkers

Desperate to stop the attacks, Patterson tried a new approach. He built a platform high up in a tree and used a donkey carcass as bait below. Hiding on the platform, he waited. One of the huge lions showed up that night, but he wasn’t interested in the donkey. The lion went after Patterson, who fired several shots at the cat. The wounded animal disappeared into the bushes.

The next morning, trackers found the lion—dead. That still left one killer lion on the loose.

Three weeks later Patterson finally killed the second lion. Six bullets hit that big cat before it died. Those lions were so terrifying that more than a century later stories and legends about the man-eaters continue. Some people wonder whether these lions and their descendants are a separate species with a taste for humans.

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Text by Margaret Zackowitz
Photograph by Robert Caputo (lion)