Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa
    Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa
    Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa
    Ebook289 pages5 hours

    Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa

    By Phillip Caputo

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    1898, Tsavo River, Kenya—The British Empire has employed 140 workers to build a railroad bridge. The bridge's construction comes to a violent halt when two maneless lions devour all 140 workers in a savage feeding frenzy that would make headlines (and history) all over the world. This is the true story that inspired the motion picture The Ghost and the Darkness. Caputo's book Ghosts of Tsavo is a new quest for truth about the origins of these near-mythical animals and how they became predators of human flesh.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNational Geographic
    Release dateSep 30, 2009
    ISBN9781426206214
    Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa

    Related to Ghosts of Tsavo

    Related ebooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Two Slain Men Were Drug Traffickers

      Jan 10, 2021

      THE two men who were shot, beheaded and set alight had worked for alleged drug lord Yaganathan Pillay, also known as Teddy Mafia, until they switched loyalties. This was according to a witness to this week’s triple killing in Shallcross, Durban, whic

      2 min read

    • Article

      Eyes On The Screen

      Jul 20, 2021

      I SAT STARING, slack-jawed, unblinking. The mesmerising, soporific sounds from the television lapped over me. The toddler sitting on my lap was the same. It was intoxicating. This was like the visual equivalent of Valium. I hadn’t watched children’s

      2 min read

    • Article

      Apache Rattlesnake Power

      Oct 26, 2021

      Apache Rattlesnake Power
      4 min read

    • Article

      Vile Piggishness

      Dec 3, 2020

      Vile Piggishness
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Last Ivory Hunter

      Apr 1, 2021

      The Last Ivory Hunter
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Case for Bringing Back the Passenger Pigeon: One geneticist’s quest to de-extinct what was once one of the world’s most abundant birds.

      Nov 17, 2016

      North Dakota is not known for its pigeons. Or forests, for that matter. The state bird is the western meadowlark, a mellifluous yellow songbird often seen singing on fence posts. Such posts substitute for trees in much of North Dakota. The state is p

      11 min read

    • Article

      Monkey Business

      Oct 7, 2021

      Monkey Business
      3 min read

    • Article

      Elect The Wolf?

      Jun 26, 2020

      Elect The Wolf?
      16 min read

    • Article

      The History Of Werewolves

      Jan 2, 2020

      The History Of Werewolves
      9 min read

    • Article

      Liberace With Attitude

      Apr 20, 2023

      Carl Abrahamsson Inner Traditions 2022 Pb, 424pp, £18.99, ISBN 9781644112410 Given the scope of available candidates for the title of Devil incarnate, one finds it difficult to imagine that Anton LaVey would even get a look in! LaVey was born in Chic

      8 min read

    • Article

      In Quest of Big Ivory

      Jan 20, 2020

      In Quest of Big Ivory
      6 min read

    • Article

      Chasing The Swamp Ghost

      May 22, 2023

      Chasing The Swamp Ghost
      15 min read

    • Article

      Kick Off Summer With The 10 Best Books Of June

      Jun 14, 2022

      Discover your next favorite book, whether you’re in the mood for insightful short stories about the immigrant experience, a startling  fantasy novel about survival, or a deep exploration of a little-known aspect of Native American history.  1. Horse 

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Sporting Life In Africa

      May 17, 2023

      A Sporting Life In Africa
      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Shelf

      Nov 18, 2019

      IF WE LOOK back on the writings of Hemingway or Ruark, we can appreciate how the role of the African professional hunter has changed as the 20th century merged into the 21st. Today’s PH needs to be, first and foremost, a true conservationist and a cu

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 8, 2022

      An account of the Angels of Mons appears in Great British Ghosts by Aidan Chambers in the chapter “Ghosts at war”, along with the following account by a (unnamed) British lieutenant-colonel: “On the night of 27 August 1914, I was riding along in the

      7 min read

    • Article

      Africa’s Wildlife – From Every Angle!

      Sep 16, 2022

      After their acclaimed book, Saving The Last Rhino, Fowlds and Spence are back together. This time it’s a memoir of Fowlds’s work across Africa to spread the message of rewilding as a means of kick-starting ecotourism opportunities and rehabilitating

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 7, 2021

      Nigel Watson reported on the suggestion that the ancient aliens thesis was inherently racist because it refused to acknowledge the ability of people of colour to construct impressive edifices [FT409:32]. Now, while I don’t deny that some aficionados

      9 min read

    • Article

      Friend OF THE Owl

      Dec 18, 2023

      Friend OF THE Owl
      10 min read

    • Article

      Why Do We Fear Wolves?

      Dec 12, 2017

      Why Do We Fear Wolves?
      9 min read

    • Article

      Jungle Love

      Apr 18, 2017

      Jungle Love
      6 min read

    • Article

      Unmasking Mythical Monsters

      May 13, 2021

      Unmasking Mythical Monsters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ancient Nature: Truth And Tall Tales

      Aug 4, 2021

      So, you probably know a bit about the Romans by now. Perhaps about their baths or heating systems, or the charming way they would throw up in the ‘vomitarium’ just so they could eat more, but did you know the Roman Empire might never have existed if

      3 min read

    • Article

      Pets And Predators

      Oct 26, 2023

      Pets And Predators
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ghosts of Tsavo

    3.5/5

    36 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      While the science is enlightening and always well-written, I thought the author could get melodramatic if he wandered to far astray from the science. Still worth the read.
    • 3/5
      Philip Caputo is the author of six novels and two memoirs, but I first encountered him in "The Ghosts of Tsavo" where he plays a substantial role , if not the main character. He is more of a narrator, capable of pulling us fully into the experience of encountering lions in an open, unreliable vehicle, and then sharing his Larium-induced nightmares with us. (It's an anti-malaria medicine) He faces peril frequently in this book, as the lions at Tsavo are not always accustomed to tourists, and react badly. He does whatever is necessary to pursue his story, in this case, uncovering some of the mystery that surrounds the Lions at Tsavo, in Africa. They are often maneless, and the area is famous for man-eating lions that had been hunted down after taking many lives. So he is brave, but he does not pretend that he is not scared, his musings ranging from comical to philosophical, Caputo could not be called boring.Caputo introduces the reader to, not only the wildlife he encounters but also his traveling companions, all unique in their own right. They are all pioneers of a sort, as they live in inhospitable country in order to pursue as much knowledge as they can, by studying the lions up close. They face disease, violent death if they should let down their guard, and loneliness as they situate themselves in far outposts in an effort to observe lions in their natural habitat.. As fate would have t, I seem to have gathered about me, 3 or 4 books involving South Africa and/or Africa. It is an undiscovered country to me.
    • 4/5
      While the science is enlightening and always well-written, I thought the author could get melodramatic if he wandered to far astray from the science. Still worth the read.
    • 4/5
      This is a sort of combination science and travel book. Unfortunately the "science" side was much weaker than the "travel" side.The author writes of his trips to east-central Africa on photographic safari, tracking the lions of Tsavo, and his adventures. Apparently safari vacations, at least in the Tsavo, are not for the faint of heart -- it's close to 100 degrees all the time, you're very far from civilization, there's a real chance of getting mauled and/or eaten by some wild animal, and there are long periods of being bored to death punctuated by short periods of being frightened to death. Caputo had a ball, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to sign up for that trip.The Tsavo lions are different from the lions further north in that they are larger, their skulls are shaped differently, they are more aggressive and much more likely to attack humans, and their manes are often sparse to non-existent. Caputo wrote about the debate between biologists about this; some of them believe the Tsavo lions could be a different subspecies or species altogether, while others believe the differences aren't significant and can be accounted for by environmental factors. I think it's a very interesting question and would like to know the answer. However, not reaching any conclusions about this, Caputo is finally like, "Who cares, I'd rather it remain a mystery, they're awesome anyway." The affect, to me, was like slamming the door in my face.I would still recommend this book, but for intrepid armchair travelers rather than armchair zoologists.
    • 4/5
      While the science is enlightening and always well-written, I thought the author could get melodramatic if he wandered to far astray from the science. Still worth the read.
    • 5/5
      I put off reading Philip Caputo's Ghosts of Tsavo because it begins with a long recounting of Wayne Hosek's killing of the man-eating lions, Ghost and Darkness. Pushing further into the text, I found a wonderful stockpile of first class nature writing, safari lore, scientific examination of what exactly constitutes a species, and philosophizing on the dichotomy between the mysteries of nature and the science that seeks to explain them. The book centers on the author's quest to learn whether the maneless lions of Tsavo National Park in Kenya are, in fact, a distinct species from their plains-dwelling maned cousins. Philip Caputo makes his first journey to Tsavo with an eccentric English guide and leaves convinced the maneless lions with a taste for human flesh are the direct descendents of Paleolithic cave-dwelling lions. At the Field Museum in Chicago, he digs deeper into the research of a self-taught big cat expert (formally employed as an ornithological specimen preparer). Then he returns to Africa with a scientific research team who take a narrow view of this speculative research. The varying viewpoints, coupled with the author's near-death experience and wild ramblings induced by malaria drugs, make for a compelling story and an atmospheric introduction to East Africa's charismatic cats.
    • 5/5
      Squeezing one last one in here. This is a nonfiction book I chose off a list for a school. I've always been fascinated by the Tsavo man-eaters, Ghost and Darkness as they were called, and this seemed the apt choice. It was a very nice little read, kept me entertained and definitely enlightened me a lot about Serengeti lions and Tsavo lions and the research going on to determine their differences and similarities. I've seen Ghost and Darkness at the Field Museum, and this book was just a nice little way to pad my knowledge of the Tsavo "buffalo" lions. I might read Patterson's account of the actual experience with the two man-eaters in the near future.

    Book preview

    Ghosts of Tsavo - Phillip Caputo

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1