SANParks.org Forums

A serious book about the lion as a predator of Mozambican refugees, who travelled through the park at night. This happened more than you think. It makes you think twice when you see lions.

The man-eaters of Eden, life and death in Kruger National Park
Robert R. Frump
ISBN-13: 978-1-59228-892-2
ISBN-10: 1-59228-892-8
$ 24,95

Oct 5: I made a mistake in his name. It must be Robert R. Frump and not Robert F. Frump.

Seems to be heavy but interesting stuff. Do you know if the book is available at the Kruger camp shops?
BTW I always think twice when I see lions

I don't know. I bought the book in Alaska.

this book looks amazing.. I'm ordering two copies.. you can read the first 30 pages on google books. it also refers to several kruger park staff killed or attached by leopards.

Doubtfull that it would be available in KNP shops - it could create panic amongst novice visitors .

Any other books by this author? Who is he?

Funny that the book is available in Alaska...

"Robert R. Frump is a nationally recognized journalist who won several major awards while a journalist and investigative reporter at The Philadephia Inquirer."

You can find more information about Frump on the website man-eater.info/.

Thanks for the info. Will go and have a look if I recognize any of the kitties.

I read the book and thought it was quite poorly written. In it he makes the claim, that a blind eye was cast during the years of apartheid, over lion eating mozambique illegal immigrants and I don't believe that.

Whatever the faults under apartheid, I don't believe there would have been casual acceptance of lion eating people.

More likely, since the electric fence between South Africa and Mozambique was switched off, there has been a huge increase in poor souls trying to cross The Kruger to live and work in South Africa and thus coming into contact with lion.

Maybe this is the reason that the lions have become more confident in approaching people in The Kruger.

Being there in the era you refer to, firstly I can tell you it is true, secondly I can tell you today is worse but due to infrastructure collapse in the post what you refer to era nobody gives a S%#^.

Well I lived there too. I lived in South Africa for ten years and my job was to go to The kruger.

I also don't believe South Africans would have turned a blind eye to people being killed. If for only selfish reasons, lion that had learned to feed on humans would seek out the camps.

Things were not perfect, but let us tell the truth otherwise we cannot deal with the problems of today.

The truth is that a lot of people(More than anyone can imagine) lost their lives to cross to SA from ZIM and Moz. Lions prides and lone ones killed a lot of the people. To saythe author is a bad writer and that other era you mentioned is not on.

Well, we cannot jog backwards as they say, but as an English person living in SA at the time of the 70s, working in the travel business and then engaged to a man who spent his whole life travelling to the Kruger, I find it hard to believe that the people running the park would have turned a blind eye. After all, that is the reason there was an electric fence.

We all know lion that have eaten humans become very dangerous and would then be attracted to the camps.

Also, there is a double negative, to say South Africans did not care that humans were being killed in the Kruger and at the same time, many people risked their lives to go to go live in SA.

We don't really know the truth. I have read many books on Africa and I thought this particular book was sloppily written.

Just my opinion.

Nonetheless, it is very sad that poor souls are so desparate, that they take such risks to obtain work and food. Don't get me wrong, I don't treat the subject lightly.

I do agree with you, there are a lot of peeps that are desperate, But I am sure parks management does look closely at the situation.

What could the authorities have done to stop the lions eating the refugees ?
The border is impossible to watch in its entirety .
Certain of the refugees were caught a few times , some within 3 weeks of their last repatriation , so desperate were they to escape the civil war in Mozambique , and they travelled mostly at night to escape detection , and that is the time when lions become so bold and lose their instinctive fear of humans .