Ghosts of Tsavo—Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa rightly sounds like what it is: a nature and adventure story. But it is also a bit more than that. It is an inquiry into why lions become man-eaters and, in particular, why the two lions dubbed “the ghost” and “the darkness” terrorized and dined upon laborers for eight months at the Tsavo River bridge in 1900. Those two beasts were ultimately killed by Colonel John Patterson. They now are stuffed and reside in Chicago’s Field Museum.

Author Philip Caputo set out to discover whether man eating was a natural instinct or a learned one. He also wanted to find out why Tsavo males are mane-less and notoriously mean, even evil. Inquiry into this latter phenomenon led to a hypothesis being debated in academic circles that mane-less lions that are man-eaters are in fact a separate subspecies descended from cave lions.

Caputo recounts some of the lion literature and he delved through Patterson’s and other historical journals, but the focus of his quest was field work in Tsavo. To that end, he joined up with several knowledgeable safari guides as well as with some lion experts. For weeks they tracked various prides and individuals in Tsavo. They discovered that some males were mane-less, but that others had scruffy beards and a few full manes. They confirmed that Tsavo lions are bigger than their plains brethren, probably because they have to be in order regularly to feed on buffalo. In Tsavo the males also hunt.

Caputo tells interesting safari stories of close encounters and narrow escapes. He peoples his accounts with sketches of his companions and a good bit of bush lore that he learned from them. Readers could have usefully been spared his malaria dreams. Set, of course, in Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park, the book really is about lions and wildlife and not much about Kenya. There are some brief discussions about park policy issues, but no consideration in depth. Indigenous Kenyans hardly enter the chronicle at all.

In sum, “Ghosts of Tsavo” educates about lions. It is a good wildlife book that recounts faithfully the sights, smells and adrenaline rush of a good safari.