Building a Bridge in Africa

Now if this was you, back then, and you had the same limited tools to work with,,, would you have done anything different?

I didn't see the movie. I'm glad I didn't live back then or in that place. How are things where you live?

Back to normal...took some shutters down, not in a big hurry to take them all down just yet....Didn't see any damage anywhere...

Based on current wisdom, you would have brought your own lions with you. More of them, bigger and hungrier. It would have been worse, but they would have been YOUR lions.

I don't think it matters who they belong to when they get hungry...

I think I would have gone with elephants instead...

I didn't know elephants eat lions. I will treat them with more respect in the future.

They don't eat them, but if given an opportunity they certainly will kill them

Check this out...how far would you estimate this tiger leaps?

Not as far as it could have.

That will wake you up.

Faster elephant! Faster!

It would have been much more entertaining if the elephant had caught the tiger with his trunk and slung him about 30ft....might need a bigger elephant for that though....haha

A perfect example of the unintended consequences of human action on the environment. In most places with all big cat species the hunting and general interaction of and with humans is avoided by the cats. Yes, there are man-eater big cats, but that is the exception rather than the norm. With the Tsavo lions humans actively fed the cats human meat for centuries. Either by "cultural" or biologic change the exceptional occasion was replaced by a new normal active pursuit; simply put, species wide normative reactive behavior was replaced with abnormal proactive behavior over multiple generations. For all most all species, except for humans, this is a very rare event.

About human induced biologic change in hunting behaviors by predatory species: The sense of smell is a prime tool by predators for hunting and identifying prey. A prime example is the Welsh Terrier. In Britain Welshies have been the principal breed used for centuries to run-hunt stag (bucks); does are not hunted at all this way. Consequently by either natural selection or selective breeding a rather unique biologic change has occurred. No other British Isles terrier has this adaption. When a Welshy is put in proximity of does and yearlings, literally within 10', they have either no or completely blasé reaction to the deer. However, if they scent a buck, even from 100's of yards away, they go into full tilt Cujo mode (vicious is not even close to describing a buck scented Welshy.)