In 1997, scientists travelled to Tsavo, Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898. The two lions stalked Indian and African men building the Uganda Railway, dragging victims from their tents at night. It was nine months before the officer in charge of the railway project, British Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, could kill them. Nearly a century later, a team including scientists from Chicago's Field Museum, where the now taxidermied lions are kept, returned to Tsavo to search for the cave Patterson believed had been the lions' den. Thomas Gnoske, one of the scientists on the expedition, and Alan Patterson, John Henry Patterson's grandson, speaks to Stefania Gozzer about the hunt for the cave and the enduring legend of the Tsavo lions. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space. (Photo: Tsavo lions in Chicago. Credit: Field Museum of Natural History)
