Lion attacks on humans in Tanzania

Packer and colleagues analysed more than 800 lion attacks on people across rural Tanzania between 1990 and 2004, one of the largest quantitative datasets on big-cat predation on humans. They found attacks increased over the study period and clustered in areas with high bushpig densities, where farmers sleeping in fields to guard crops were especially vulnerable, and around the harvest season. The analysis identified specific man-eating lions responsible for many deaths and tied risk to agricultural practices and declining natural prey. The findings reframed lion attacks as a predictable, addressable public-health and land-use problem rather than random misfortune.