The Man-eaters of Tsavo is a semi-autobiographical book written by Anglo-Irish military officer and hunter John Henry Patterson.

Published in 1907,[1] it recounts his experiences in East Africa while supervising the construction of a railroad bridge over the Tsavo river in Kenya, in 1898.

[2] The book describes attacks by two man-eating lions on workers building the Uganda Railway through British East Africa in 1898 and how the pair were eventually killed by Patterson.

Patterson's 1907 book itself states that "between them [the lions] no less than 28 Indian coolies, in addition to scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was kept" were killed.

In 2001, Julian Kerbis Peterhans and Tom Gnoske published their definitive paper on man-eating behavior among lions with special reference to the Tsavo situation.

This lesser number was confirmed in Dr. Bruce Patterson's definitive book The Lions of Tsavo: Exploring the Legacy of Africa's Notorious Man-Eaters.

He showed that the greater toll attributed to the lions resulted from a pamphlet written by Colonel Patterson in 1925, stating "these two ferocious brutes killed and devoured, under the most appalling circumstances, 135 Indian and African artisans and laborers employed in the construction of the Uganda Railway.

The railway project was controversial and the British Press referred to it as "The Lunatic Express",[5] as critics considered it a waste of funds, while supporters argued it was necessary for transportation of goods.

Even after the hospital is moved, one lion penetrates the thick, thorn fence called a boma built to protect it and drags the water carrier away to his death.

In the course of hunting these lions, Patterson encounters a red spitting cobra, a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, a pack of wild dogs, a wildebeest that faked dying, and a herd of zebra, of which he captured six.

Some time after Patterson completes the bridge, he learns of the death of his friend, Railway Police Superintendent Charles H. Ryall.

Immediately afterwards, the lion leapt out the window with Ryall, leaving the remaining hunter to seek refuge in the station.