The movies may have gotten it wrong after all. An analysis of bone collagen and hair keratin from two notorious man-eating lions shot in 1898 in Kenya shows that they didn¹t eat near as many people as legend would have it.

Reports from the time claimed the lions ate 28 laborers and "scores of unfortunate African natives." Numbers as high as 135 were routinely given.

Instead, the study by biologists at the University of California Santa Cruz and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (where the stuffed male lions now reside) show that they probably consumed between 4 and 72 humans, with 35 being a strong possibility.

Interestingly, the study showed that one of the lions ate about double the number of people the other did.