Joy Adamson

JOY ADAMSON d1980. Austrian naturalist, artist and author. Her book "Born Free" describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa. Born Free was printed in several languages and made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. She is best known for her conservation efforts associated with Elsa the Lioness. In 1956, George Adamson (in the course of his job as game warden of the Northern Frontier District in Kenya) shot and killed a lioness as she charged him and another warden. He later realized the lioness was just protecting her cubs which were found nearby in a rocky crevice. Taking them home, Joy and George found it difficult to care for all the cubs' needs. The two largest cubs (named "Big One" and "Lustica") were passed on to be cared for by a zoo in Rotterdam and the smallest, "Elsa", was raised by the couple. After some time living together, the Adamsons decided to set Elsa free rather than send her to a zoo and spent many months training her to hunt and survive on her own. They were in the end successful and Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release and the first known released lion to have a litter of cubs. The Adamsons kept their distance from the cubs, getting close enough only to photograph them. In January 1961, Elsa died from babesiosis, a disease resulting from a tick bite. Her three young cubs became a nuisance, killing the livestock of local farmers. The Adamsons who feared the farmers might kill the cubs were able to eventually capture them and transport them to neighboring Tanganyika Territory where they were promised a home at Serengeti National Park. On January 3rd 1980 (in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya) Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Pieter Mawson, she was 69. He mistakenly assumed she had been killed by a lion and this was what was initially reported by the media. The police investigation found her wounds were too sharp and bloodless to have been caused by an animal and concluded she had been murdered. Paul Nakware Ekai (a discharged labourer formerly employed by Adamson) was found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. He escaped capital punishment because the judge ruled he might have been a minor when the crime was committed. Joy Adamson was cremated and her ashes were buried in Elsa the Lioness's grave in Meru National Park Kenya. George Adamson was murdered nine years later in 1989 (near his camp in Kora National Park) while rushing to the aid of a tourist who was being attacked by poachers. He is credited with saving the tourist's life