A gripping tale of studying lions in their native habitat. However, the author got off track on at least two occasions presenting his personal philosophy on issues that had nothing to do with studying lions.
This report is the personal travel- and research-epilogue of the author, who wanted to find out why there are theses peculiar sub-species of Tsavo-lions in Kenya.
In reality the short-manedness is an adaption to the environment. Also the aggressivity of the lions since the time of the building of the East African railway in the beginning of the 20th century has no other reasons as in the other cases of man-eating that could be observed. Under-supply of natural food resources, over-supply of humans, who penetrate the biosphere in a manner that does not spare the environment. Lions are a part of nature which defends itself, or, when the ecological equivalence is lost, loses its natural or "usual" behaviour!
In India there is a long and voluminous history of the clash between an ever further repressed, claw-defending nature (there then protagonists are tigers and leopards) with the proprietorial population. So far the author and the other "expeditionists" could have spared the journey, a little more study of sources would have been helpful. But maybe a research fond was full and the conundrum about the Sarawakian snubnose flying fox recently solved.
In parts his verbose exposed approach to something what could since long and without Kenya sojourn be brought into the treasures of experience is tiring and thoroughly unagitated. Supposed this book is not meant for proficient Africa travellers, rather for beer-o`clock arm-chair sitters, who do not really plan to be lured away from their hammock in Mombassa on an Africa journey for more than the obligatory two days safari.
Before you read this book, read that of Colonel Patterson "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo". Maybe then you have enough of man-eating lions!
A Multi-Dimensional Mystery
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.
An interesting work
The author tags along on a couple of scientific studies and reports what actually goes on. Very entertaining and enlightening but the theory that proved most promising is discounted in a similar study so we still don't have the answer to why the lions are maneless. But, that's nature...
The blend of science and adventure here makes for a riveting read
Philip Caputo's Ghosts Of Tsavo: Stalking The Mystery Lions Of East Africa blends travelogue with nature in telling of the author's journey to Kenya's Tsavo National Park on foot with his guides, then in companionship with two scientists who seek close encounters with the big cats. Are the maneless lions found in Tsavo a subspecies of African lion, and a missing link? These lions are especially fierce, and the blend of science and adventure here makes for a riveting read.
