Attacks on humans

Template:Verify While a hungry lion may occasionally attack a human that passes near, some (usually male) lions seem to seek out human prey. Some of the more publicized cases include the Tsavo maneaters and the Mfuwe man-eater. In both cases the hunters who killed the lions wrote books detailing the lions' "careers" as man-eaters. In folklore, man-eating lions are sometimes considered demons.
The Mfuwe and Tsavo incidents did bear some similarities. The lions in both the incidents were all larger than normal, lacked manes and seemed to suffer from tooth decay. Some have speculated that they might belong to an unclassified species of lion, or that they may have been sick and could not have easily caught prey.
There have also been recorded attacks on humans by lions in captivity; although tigers in captivity are statistically much more likely to attack humans. Wild lions are also much less likely to attack humans than wild tigers are.
Also, Professor Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota and Tanzanian scientist Dennis Ikanda authored an important paper in "Nature" in 2006 that showed man-eating behavior in rural areas of Tanzania had increased greatly from 1990 through 2005. More than 500 villagers were attacked and many eaten in this time period -- a number far exceeding the more famed "Tsavo" incidents of a century and more earlier. The problem, near Selous National Park in Rufijji Province and in Lindi Province near the Mozambican border. While some of these problems are no doubt caused by the expansion of villagers into bush country, the authors argue that conservation poicy must mitigate the problem because conservation policies contribute directly to human deaths. Cases in Lindi have been documented where lions seize humans form the center of substantial villages.
Author Robert R. Frump also wrote in 2006 that Mozambican refugees crossing Kruger National Park at night in South Africa regularly are attacked and eaten by the lions there. Park officials conceded that man-eating is a problem there. Frump believes thousands may have been killed in the decades after apartheid sealed the park and forced the refugees to cross the park at night. Mozambicans had for neary a century before the border was sealed regularly walked across the park in daytime with little harm. (See www.man-eater.info)
Generally, westerners do not understand the toll that animal-human conflict takes on human lives and crops in Africa. Packer estimates more than 200 Tanzanians are killed each year by lions, crocodiles, elephants, hippos and snakes, and that the numbers could be double that amount. Lions are thought to kill about 70 humans per year at least in Tanzania, Packer and Ikanda note. Packer and Ikanda are among the few conservations who believe western conservation efforts must take account of these matters not just because of ethical concerns about human life but for the long term success of conservation efforts and lion preservations.
The "All-Africa" record of man-eating generally is considered to be not Tsavo but the lesser known incidents in the late 1930's through the late 1940's in what was then Tanganyika (now Tanzania.) George Rushby, game warden and professional hunter, eventually dispatched the pride, which over 3 generations, is thought to have killed and eaten 1,500 to 2,000.
Tsavo and Patterson body counts vary from a pretty firm 28 up to 140. While some authors disparage the actual number, it should be kept in mind that Patterson kept firm records of skilled-labor killed by the lions, not indigenous Africans. The toll could easily have been much higher