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The Tsavo Lions

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibits/exhibit_sites/tsavo/default.htm

Is it Philip Caputo's version, I wonder? He tore Patterson's version up a bit in his book.

The listings did not say, I saw one of his hunting shows a while back but do not think it was about this. Name of book please.

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo by Patterson

Ghost of Tsavo by Caputo

I liked them both. Caputo investigates the differences between Tsavo lions and Serengetti lions.

Caputo's book: "Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa"
# Hardcover: 300 pages
# Publisher: National Geographic (June 1, 2002)
# Language: English
# ISBN: 0792263626

I was a bit disappointed at his treatment of Patterson.

Thanks

Invader,

Thanks for the heads up! A very educational and enjoyable show. Great viewing. Hugh

The program that was on before this one was about a pride of lions. It was either in Kenya or Tanzania. But the part that cativated me was when the herd of Buff came upon the place where the lions were hiding the cubs.
None of the hunting videos, nor any other video that I have watch has been able to convey the total fury and destruction that the Buff is capable of.
It showed the real size of a big bull and the actual footage of the bulls killing the cubs was simply shocking. A cat kill or a hyena kill can not match this even though they are both for survival.

Dulcinea

Caputo's book: "Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa"

Is a bloody awfull interpretation of Patterson's book.

Get the original - or a copy of it - and enjoy a real hunting story.

I got the impression that Caputo did not have a clue what hunting is!

I had lunch with of buddy of mine yesterday, who just had visited the field museum. He tells me the lions were not big mained species, and hat the mounts were very small. Petterson
had made rugs out of them. When changed to a life size mount they lost a lot of their naterial size.
JD

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Caputo's book: "Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa"

Is a bloody awfull interpretation of Patterson's book.

Get the original - or a copy of it - and enjoy a real hunting story.

I got the impression that Caputo did not have a clue what hunting is!

I think Caputo was mentally ruined by his experiences in Vietnam (see his famous book "A Rumor of War"). IMHO, since then his goal has been to tear down icons such as Patterson and classic traditions.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Caputo's book: "Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa"

Is a bloody awfull interpretation of Patterson's book.

Get the original - or a copy of it - and enjoy a real hunting story.

I got the impression that Caputo did not have a clue what hunting is!

An emphatic "Ditto"!

probably 20yrs ago I read a paperback 'historical' novel about the lions. As I recall it was written by a 'western' author as there were western books listed that he had written. Anyone familiar with this book? capt david

Takes a lot of nerve to put down the guy who was actually there and did the deed.

Patterson's book was interesting but hardly exciting. He seemed to accept the deaths of the workers in an almost a matter of fact way. He basically looked for the lions, found them and shot them. The End.

Incidentally, the reason the Val Kilmer/Michael Douglas movie based on the Tsavo lions is titled "The Ghost and the Darkness" is because Patterson himself named the two cats Ghost and Darkness.

quote:

Originally posted by J D:
I had lunch with of buddy of mine yesterday, who just had visited the field museum. He tells me the lions were not big mained species, and hat the mounts were very small. Petterson
had made rugs out of them. When changed to a life size mount they lost a lot of their naterial size.
JD

I was there two weeks ago, and if you are not versed in the story (by Patterson) they would not be noteworthy. Although they were somewhat smaller than I expected, I was impressed at how good they did look taking into account the fact that they had been rugs for decades. The skulls were more interesting to me. As an aside, I found a giant sable in a dimly lit corridor that was truly impressive. The Field Museum is a good place to visit if you have time on your hands in Chicago.

I believe the taxidermist spent 2 years getting them back into shape.

Here is the book online, for those who have not read it:

Small version with 1 pic

4 Meg version with 120 pics


I have rather fond memories of these lions as my father worked at the Field Museum back in the early 70's and I had a summer volunteer job there working gluing together dinosaur bones.

When I was feeling daring during late evenings I would walk through the African hall and scare the bejeepers out of myself...

As per Patterson´s book, both lions were very big animals, one of them exceeded 4´ at the shoulder, as far as I can recall.

The Lions at the Field Museum are larger than they used to be. They've been redone recently, and are closer to actual size. Prior to that they were really kind of pathetic looking, and the damage to the hides was quite obvious.

Thanks for the link never thought you could read for free, anyone know of any other sites you can get any other good books online? Hunting books that is.

As an aside and most are probably aware of this but...

If you are interested in such things you should make an effort to read the Jim Corbett books about hunting down man eating tigers and leopards. Cracking stories even if some do question if absolutely every detail is true.

I don't think the Patterson book makes as good reading as the Corbett ones though it is a most impressive tale.

wow how in the hell did i reply to this old thread I thought it was the one from a week or so ago that had the link to the book. oops

Did any of you actually READ Caputos book? It mentions John Patterson but it is not about him or the animals he killed. He is a journalist who accompanied a research party and gave his views AS A JOURNALIST.

The laymans version of the scintific expedition was written by Bruce D. Patterson (no relation to John), and is called "The Lions of Tsavo". John Patterson is mentioned in this book as well.

quote:

Originally posted by DC300:
Did any of you actually READ Caputos book? It mentions John Patterson but it is not about him or the animals he killed. He is a journalist who accompanied a research party and gave his views AS A JOURNALIST.

The laymans version of the scintific expedition was written by Bruce D. Patterson (no relation to John), and is called "The Lions of Tsavo". John Patterson is mentioned in this book as well.

Yes, I own the book and read it. I did not enjoy what I perceived to be 21st century urban bias in his writings.

caputo also wrote a book on vietnam that was rather disapointing but his treatment of this story was pretty poor indeed