Their reputation of being man-eating ferocious animals precedes them most of the time, making them tourist-drawing museum pieces. However, the famed Kenyan duo of man-eating lions may not really be that human-hungry. The infamous Tsavo lions credited with 135 kills ate just 35 humans, making them not as ravenous as legend creates them to be.

The Tsavo lions are reputed to have eaten 135 railroad workers in Africa at the turn of the last century. The infamous pair now have their stuffed carcasses enshrined at Chicago’s Field Museum, a reminder that beast is stronger than man.

‘Scientists analyzed the duo’s bone fragments for evidence of homo sapiens in their diet.’ According to one of the study’s researchers, “The possible range is between 4 and 72 humans. But 35 is most likely.” The new study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study suggests that the ‘Tsavo lions’ taste for human flesh may have been exaggerated.’

Prof. Julian Kerbis of Roosevelt University says, “It’s remarkable how the myth has grown.”

‘For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been one of the Field Museum’s top tourist draws. The museum revises its display materials into one that reads: “legend has it they killed and ate over 100 people.” However, museum officials still brag about the Tsavo lions’ feat, “They stopped the British Empire, at the height of its imperial power, literally in its tracks.”

Via Chicago Tribune