Lion attacks on humans occur mainly between sunset and 10:0 pm on nights when the Moon was waning and providing relatively little light, says the study. Photo: APA lion is more likely to eat only after a full moon, research has shown. Other predators such as wolves, they can be even more dangerous when the moon begins to wane.
The discovery, study, African Lion, attacks might explain 500 instead of the full moon in folklore as a foreboding of evil or disaster and its association with werewolves and vampires.
Scientists have studied the records of almost 500 Lion attacks on villagers of Tanzania, between 1988 and 2009.
In more than two thirds of cases, the victims were killed and eaten. The vast majority of the attacks occurred between sunset and 10:0 pm on nights when the Moon was waning and providing relatively little light.
Lions hunt more successfully when darkness allows them to surprise their prey, but in the bright moon nights could make hunger.
The period immediately after a full moon provides a lion with a welcome opportunity to catch up on missed meals.
As the Moon decreases, it does not appear until well after sunset near the equator, which occurs at the beginning even in summer.
Periods of danger to human beings are therefore the active hours after sunset, the day after the full moon.
The pattern is evident when the researchers compared rates of attack with the lunar cycle. The attacks were a third more frequent during the second half of the cycle, when there was little or no moonlight.
Chief researcher Dr. Craig Packer, a Lion expert based at the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences in the United States, said: "people are starting to moderate danger during the days 0-4, when the Moon is just a shard and set shortly after sunset.
"Danger declines so as the Moon gets brighter every evening, with very few attacks in the night just before the full moon. Then, wham, peaks of danger as those hungry Lions can now operate in darkness, for the rest of the lunar cycle.
"The post-full-Moon spike is limited to relatively few hours of complete darkness before the evening Moon largish."
Lion attacks increases even during the rainy season, when the Moon was more likely to be overshadowed by the clouds.
The study, published Wednesday in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, involved controlling measures of the size of his belly recorded regularly since 1978 Lion and Lion attacks records kept by government authorities of Tanzania.
Researchers wrote: "these results provide novel insights into human attitudes toward the Moon".
Stressed that humans have lived near the great nocturnal carnivores for many thousands of years.
Lions were once the most widely distributed mammal in the world, and Jaguars, Tigers and leopards have coexisted with people in Asia, Africa and tropical America. Human ancestors painted images of lions on the cave walls 36,000 years ago.
"So we have always been exposed to the risk of predation that bike with waxing and waning of the Moon," said the scientists.
Between sunset and sunrise, humans were the most active at night and at greater risk from predators.
The researchers added: "the darkest hours in prime time are restricted in the weeks following the full moon, and immediately after the bright evenings in the second quarter, the Lions are hungrier.
"Although we are safer from attacks by Leo during the nights, the full moon accurately indicates that the risk of predation Lion will increase dramatically in the coming days. So the full moon is not dangerous in itself but is instead a harbinger of the coming darkness ".
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