Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa (Hardcover)

~ Phillip Caputo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1898, two maneless male lions killed and devoured 135 Indian and African workers constructing a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. It took Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, the engineer in charge of the project, nine months to hunt and kill the beasts, an ordeal recounted in his 1907 book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and later the subject of two films, 1952's Bwana Devil and 1996's The Ghost and the Darkness. A century later, the story of Ghost and Darkness still fascinates and terrifies. Were they just rogue lions, or were they the "missing genetic link" between the prehistoric cave cats who hunted early humans and the modern African lion? Novelist Caputo (The Voyage) seeks answers to this intriguing question as he accompanies two separate expeditions to study the maneless lions of Tsavo. Unfortunately, the resulting book is a frustrating mix of personal travel narrative and scientific speculation, with no definite conclusions. Admitting his ambivalence, Caputo writes: "I feel divided, half of me hungry for scientific truth, the other half seeking to embrace the mythic. It occurs to me that I haven't come close to solving the mystery of Tsavo's lions, probably because my heart hasn't been in it." Still, Caputo's muscular prose vividly captures the beauty and dangers of Africa, and there will be demand because of his name. For larger adventure and natural history collections. Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Caputo is a superb yarn-spinner with a love of adventure and a penchant for philosophizing. A best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, memoirist, and journalist, he's really been around--"at last count, I've lived, worked, traveled, and fought and covered wars in 48 countries on 4 continents"--so it's no surprise to find that Caputo's latest compelling work of nonfiction chronicles a quest on foreign ground. The inspiration for Caputo's African sojourn is found in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the final resting place for the two infamous, maneless, man-eating male lions of Tsavo, an inhospitable and scrubby coastal region in East Africa. These beasts "attained mythic status" by killing and eating 135 railway laborers in 1898, and their cunning descendants continue to take humans as prey and to intrigue scientists who want to know why some lions hunt human beings, why most male lions have manes, and why many male Tsavo lions do not. Caputo relishes hair-raising tales of man-eaters and explicates various theories about them, while entertainingly chronicling his experiences as part of a photography and research safari in Kenya's wildlife reserve. Not only does he excel at evoking the beauty of his surroundings and describing his own sometimes harrowing encounters with wildlife, he also reflects cogently on the consequences of our precipitous decimation of the wild. It turns out that there's nothing all that mysterious about the Tsavo lions: they simply hunt to live. It's our unnecessarily violent species that remains obdurately enigmatic. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792263626
• ISBN-13: 978-0792263623
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #977,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging look at unusual lions, May 9, 2003

By	J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Ghosts of Tsavo" is part travelogue, part natural history, part murder mystery, and part mid-life crisis for its author Philip Caputo. What it is as a whole is a fascinating, engaging look at the lions of Tsavo Park in Kenya. Caputo first became interested in these unusual lions as a result of a visit to the Field Museum in Chicago as a young boy. Therein were "Ghost" and "Darkness" two enormous males lions that terrorized constructions workers building a rail line through Tsavo. In fact terrorized may be too weak a word as they are credited with killing at least 120 people and literarily halting construction until they were eventually hunted down and killed by British Lt. Col. Patterson who was heading up the project. He recounted this effort in his famous memoir "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" and kindled a fascination with Kenya's lions that lingered with Caputo for half a century.

What sets the lions of Tsavo apart from the more familiar ones we know from nature documentaries, is that they are much bigger, and the males are either maneless of have very short manes, in either case nothing like the regal mountains of fur on their cousins from the Serengeti. In the first half of the book, Caputo explores reasons as to why this might by the case. It is possible that since Tsavo is much warmer than the Serengeti, manes are too expensive in terms of internal resources to grow. Another possibility is that the thick scrub brush and thorns of the region wear down manes before they ever become truly impressive.

However, it is a more controversial theory that makes for the most entertaining reading. Caputo encounters several scientists who argue that the lions of Tsavo are genetically distinct from the lions on the Serengeti. Moreover, they argue that the lions of Tsavo are in fact a throw back to prehistoric lions, quite literally walking fossils. The point to the lack of manes, the much larger height and girth and the fact that Tsavo lions hunt the enormous Cape Buffalo as justifications for this thesis.

Ultimately, Caputo, in three journeys to Kenya over the course of eighteen months (once as a tourist and twice with scientific expeditions) is never able to definitively state which hypothesis is correct. However, that in no way detracts from his rambling, conversational narrative. Caputo is not a scientist, and he in no way pretends to be one, although he does (and justifiably so) consider himself a well-informed observer. As such, he is not constrained by the rigors of academia, and can therefore transfer his passion for these lions and the mystery surrounding them onto the page. In fact, towards the end he grows weary of the scientific studies as they somehow detract from the powerful aura that surrounds the lions.

If you are interested in lions in general, or if the prospect of some spine-tingling tales of man-eating lions sounds appealing, "Ghost of Tsavo" is well worth reading. However, beyond the surface elements, Caputo has written a book that captures the raw spirituality of nature, and that bemoans modern man's detachment from the primitive. So it is entirely likely that even if you have no interest in lions at all, you may be drawn to Caputo's lament for something we don't even realize we have lost. Either way, "Ghost's of Tsavo" is well worth reading.

Jake Mohlman

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Confronting the nightmare lions and oneself., June 20, 2002

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Long fascinated with the subject of man-eating lions, Philip Caputo does not pretend to be an expert on them, the environment, or African affairs. In fact, his lack of expertise and his desire to learn give this book some of its appeal and make it totally accessible, even to the most scientifically challenged reader. Consulting experts from Chicago's Field Museum and from the University of Minnesota, before, during, and after two trips he makes to Kenya's Tsavo National Park, Caputo immerses himself in their research, familiarizing the reader, in the process, with the lions, their behavior, and their controversies.

Far more apt to attack and eat humans than are the Serengeti plains lions, the man-eaters of Tsavo are giants, much longer from nose to tail, much taller at the shoulder, and 100 - 150 pounds heavier than the plains lions, and the males are often maneless. Caputo's experts strongly disagree on whether these giant lions differ simply because they have adapted to the hotter climate of Tsavo and their need to kill Cape buffalo for food, or whether, in fact, they represent a missing link between modern lions and the maneless cave lions of the Pleistocene era, which roamed throughout the Near East and Africa.

Stories of famous man-eaters of the past hundred years, including two which killed 135 people in 1898, and one 550-pounder from 1991, add drama and excitement to the narrative. But Caputo also ranges widely into peripheral, more personal subjects--why he believes hunters are closer to nature than are photographers, why tracking a lion on foot for four days is a more divine experience than using a vehicle, evolution vs. creationism, cloning, science vs. faith, and even his nightmares. Ultimately, the book is as much about Caputo as about the lions, who remain a mystery. "The truth is," he concludes, "I don't want to learn anything more about lions, but am content...to keep some blank spots blank; after all, those are what excite the imagination." Mary Whipple

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done, both exciting and balanced., June 28, 2002

By	Sore back "maizoids" (Summit, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

Watch for The Ghosts of Tsavo to find a well-deserved spot on the best-seller lists. Caputo blends one bit travelogue with a splash of John McPhee, frappes it with some exciting writing, then serves it over the rocks of some hard scientific facts. This is a yarn, but a great one. The prologue is, hands down, the best story of someone hunting a man eating lion I have ever read. But this is not the "Jaguars Clawed My Flesh" school of big cat writing. His is a journey of exploration of the old school, similar to an expedition in the 19th Century from the Field Museum, which inspired Caputo as a child. Scientists will be happy to see he balances all of this with reason. Romantics will be happy to see he balances science with emotion. He has a gift, too, of beginning a personal rant on a point of politics and philosphy, and then doubling back on himself and to laugh at himself. He explores myths and explodes myths. Yet there is a romantic side to him that values them and the unknown. A good read, good reporting. Buy it, if the theme appeals to you at all, or if you ever looked up, as Caputo did as a child, at the great stuffed cats in museums.