A Bradford biochemist is heading to the plains of Kenya to study a bizarre link between baldness and man-eating lions.

Dr Julie Thornton, pictured, a senior lecturer in biomedical sciences at Bradford University, is taking part in a two-week adventure in eastern Kenya investigating why a group of lions have no manes.

And she believes the key may be the male hormone testosterone - with lions "hairless" because they suffer the same excess of testosterone as bald men.

Mother-of-two Dr Thornton is spending time with the infamous Tsavo lions, which reportedly killed 130 railway workers in 1898 while the men were building a bridge over the Tsavo River.

The lions are unique for having no mane but are also famously ferocious.

The study team she is part of, funded by the National Geographic Society, believes the lions have high levels of the male hormone which can cause baldness and aggression in humans.

Previous studies have shown that these lions also live in a unique social system where large groups of females are ruled by one male.

Dr Thornton has joined two American scientists and one from the Kenya Wildlife Service to look at genetic and hormonal attributes of the lions.

She is a senior lecturer in biomedical sciences at the University of Bradford, whose course is one of the longest-established and most respected of its kind in the country.

A university spokeswoman said: "It is very exciting to be involved in this project and it demonstrates yet again that the university is at the forefront of ground-breaking research."

According to Dr Thornton, who returns home to Greater Manchester from her unusual trip at the end of April, an American television crew has been tracking the team's adventures.

Radio collars are being put on lions in the Tsavo East National Park to monitor their behaviour throughout an annual cycle.

Team member Dr Bruce Patterson, MacArthur curator of mammals at Chicago's Field Museum, said: "Studying lions in Tsavo indicates that the 'king of the beasts' has a lot of tricks up its sleeve that confuse and astound those who would type-cast it."

Scientists believe that lions evolved manes because they attract females, deter trespassers, intimidate nomadic males, give a visual sign of a territorial male's control, and protect the vital head and neck regions in a fight.

So why are the Tsavo kings of the jungle maneless?

One possibility being explored by Dr Thornton and her team is that they have higher than normal testosterone levels which can cause baldness in men.

Dr Patterson added: "We hope to gain a better understanding of manelessness, as well as the economics of the Tsavo lions' social system."

The study is also supported by the Chicago Field Museum, where two stuffed Tsavo lions believed to be responsible for the 1898 attacks are a major tourist attraction.

The story was made into a film The Ghost and the Darkness in 1996.