Research overview: contemporary lion attacks on people in southeastern Africa

This overview synthesises research on lion attacks on humans in rural southeastern Africa, particularly Tanzania and Mozambique, where some of the highest modern rates of fatal lion predation have been recorded. It reviews analyses linking attacks to agricultural practices such as sleeping in fields to guard crops, bushpig abundance, harvest seasons, declining natural prey, and specific man-eating individuals. The literature examines victim demographics, spatial clustering, and the interplay of poverty, land use, and predation risk. The survey frames these attacks as a serious, addressable rural public-health problem, showing that lion predation on people, far from a historical curiosity, persists at meaningful levels in particular contemporary landscapes shaped by agriculture and prey dynamics.