When Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson came to Kenya to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo river
, he did not know that the greatest hardship was to come from two maneless male lions which he later killed himself. When the construction work started in 1898, Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson and his team of Indian workers set to worlk as was planned. These two lions started terrorizing the railway workers immediately. It was estimated that the lions killed and mauled over a hundred costruction workers during this time.It was so bad that the construction had to be halted as most of the workers fled the area. The lions would stalk the Indians at night, drag them from theoir beds and maul them up in the forests. Only a few body parts would be found in the morning. The workers tried to scare of the lions by building campfires at night but this did not deter them. They also tried to make build a wall of thorns around the sleeping quarters but the lions would penetrate throught the thorn fence as if it was just made of a sticks. Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson when he saw that the lions were not giving up easily on thier new found endevour, he had to think of a way to extaminate them. He started by putting traps for them which they would evade. He also tried ambushing them from a tree top at night but he was not successful. After many months of waiting and hoping, he shot and killed the first lion in December the 9th then the second one he killed three weeks later. This ended the nightmare the Tsavo had become.