Research overview: scavenging of human remains and the origins of man-eating

This overview examines the hypothesis that scavenging human corpses can initiate man-eating in big cats, drawing on historical episodes such as the Tsavo railway era and famine, epidemic, and conflict settings where unburied dead were accessible. It synthesises arguments that opportunistic feeding on human remains may habituate predators to human flesh and reduce wariness, potentially preceding active predation, alongside skepticism about how often this pathway operates. The literature connects the idea to broader questions of how cats overcome aversion to humans as prey. The survey frames corpse-scavenging as one plausible, historically grounded route into man-eating among several, illustrating how human crises and predator behaviour can intertwine in conflict.