Born Free

by Joy Adamson

  Among the animals we met that morning were a herd of fifty head of impala. With their lyre-shaped horns, slender well-proportioned bodies and rich red colouring, they are amongst the most beautiful antelopes. At our approach one bounded away gracefully in long leaps, and soon the whole herd was jumping rhythmically. This time they had an excuse for their movement, but often they leap about just for the fun of it. At this season the herds were composed of both sexes, but during certain months, the females keep apart and the males form bachelor herds. We have counted up to forty old and young rams in a single herd and up to seventy ewes, sometimes guarded by a single male.

  At the entrance to the cubs’ valley I recognized the two pairs of mating lions that I had seen there before and when I arrived at the ravine I found the jaw bone of an impala which had recently been killed. I looked round anxiously for the solitary ram and was glad to see him watering a short distance away. I called to the cubs but saw nothing but a hyena sneaking off.

  That day too we drew a blank with the cubs. The driving was rough and we went into several ant-bear holes which were hidden by the grass and had to jack the wheels.

  Every morning we left early for the cub valley. The sun was still low and the plains were a sea of sparkling dew from which a mist arose. Wherever we looked we saw animals sleek or fluffy, striped, spotted or plain; with horns and bodies of infinite variety, all leaping and gambolling with a gaiety which was most infectious. Many were conservative in their habits and we got to know a number of individuals quite well.

  One day we spent some time observing three lions which resembled ours so much that Nuru could not be persuaded that they were not Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa. To prove to him that he was wrong I called to them but got no response and finally I put a dish of water near the car to test them. When he saw it the leader of the two male cubs growled at me and moved off. It was odd that three cubs about the same age as Elsa’s should also have lost their mother, odd too that the lioness not only looked like Little Elsa but behaved much as she did, though she did not, when sitting, tuck her head between her shoulders as Little Elsa did, and neither of the male cubs had an arrow wound like Jespah or a potbelly like Gopa. After watching them for several hours I was pretty certain they were a strange pride, yet after we had driven away I began to have doubts, so we returned to have another look at them which confirmed my certainty that they were not our cubs.

  Since I was fairly sure that Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa would not quickly adapt themselves to the tsetse fly or to the proximity of a lot of lions, I searched for them along the base of the escarpment and in ravines farther down the valley where there were no tsetse and fewer lions. One deeply eroded lugga looked particularly promising, for protected by its steep walls I thought the cubs would feel that they could go more safely to the river than by crossing the valley to reach it. There were so many impala near this lugga that we called it the impala lugga. At its far end by the river a pride of lions had their territory. The first time we met them was during the hot hours of the day. We saw a lioness and two almost fully grown female cubs asleep. Nearby was a kill, which though replete they were guarding. A tree above the kill was thick with vultures, and on one of its branches a third female cub sprawled. After a while she stretched herself, yawned, climbed slowly to the ground and flung herself against her mother.

  It was very hot and all the lions were panting. Suddenly two of the cubs moved over to a small, bushy tree and climbed on to its slender branches, which shook alarmingly under their weight, but undeterred the lionesses remained aloft, no doubt enjoying the breeze.

  On another occasion we came across the same four lionesses making their way to a stagnant pool in the riverbed. The mother walked ahead, at each step cautiously testing the mud with one paw. When she could go no farther without the risk of getting stuck, she consoled herself for not being able to reach the water and drink by looking about for a place to her liking and then resting on the cool mud. Two of the cubs followed her example. We had often seen Elsa acting with the same caution. Lions are always very careful to avoid getting caught in the mud and I cannot recall a case of a lion getting fatally trapped.

  This is unfortunately not the case with elephant which during droughts, when crazy with thirst, often become bogged; the harder they struggle to get out the deeper they sink into the sucking mud. We have often tried to rescue elephant from this horrible lingering death. Sometimes several get trapped in the same place. It is possible that a disaster of this kind involving a number of elephant has given rise to the myth of elephant cemeteries. Hippo, rhino and buffalo, on the other hand, all heavy animals which enjoy wallowing in the mud, never seem to get stuck and appear to know by instinct which places are safe for mud bathing and which should be avoided.

  A few days later we again met the four lionesses in the same area and also a very large lion. I thought that we had better pursue our search farther down the valley, since it was unlikely that our cubs would stay in the territory established by such a pride. We drove the forty miles to the end of the valley where we saw a vast congregation of wildebeest and zebra; they were plagued by swarms of tsetse, which made me think that this also was a place that the cubs would not choose as their home. The only area we had not so far searched was that of the hills on the far side of the river opposite the cubs’ ravine and the hinterland of the escarpment.

  The hills were a hopeless proposition since there was no way of driving up them, but I hoped we could reach the edge of the escarpment by making a long detour into the hinterland and reaching the gentler slopes which led up the back of it. To do this, we spent several days bumping over very rough country. Eventually I decided to give up the attempt to reach the escarpment; for one thing, I could not afford to have a breakdown in this remote area.

  Each morning we started out full of hope and each evening returned defeated.

  On our homeward journey the sun was behind us and we could watch the animals in a perfect light.

  The evening scene appeared very peaceful, yet I knew it was the pause before each predator set out to kill and fill his belly, and there were plenty of hyenas prowling about to remind one of the fact. Unlike the cats which make a straight kill, hyenas either try to benefit by the kill of other predators or make for a newly born antelope calf or some other victim which is unable to defend itself.

  My nights in camp were often exciting. I could hear lions prowling round and got to recognize the voices of most of them. Once I awoke to hear lapping noises and, being half asleep, listened for some time before I realized that a lioness was inside my tent drinking out of my basin. I had nothing but a table between me and Africa so I shouted at her and urged her to go away which obligingly she did. This incident I reported to the park warden who told me that the lions of the Serengeti were known occasionally to go into tents, pluck at a groundsheet and take a look round to see what was going on.

  Although some of my nocturnal visitors made my heart beat fast, the roaring of the lions in the stillness of the night never seemed to me a blood-curdling noise, but a most wonderful sound and often appealingly gentle. The lions close to Seronera, having been used to visitors since cubhood, were particularly friendly. Many had been surrounded by cars while suckling their mothers and therefore had come to regard human beings and motors as a natural feature in their lives.

  Except in areas in which people have hunted or shot from cars, the wild animals seemed to consider cars as some kind of fellow-creature with strange habits and a peculiar scent, but nevertheless harmless. So long as passengers do not talk too much or move, they too, if they remain inside, do not cause alarm, but when they get out, the animals panic and race away.

  Every day we met many lions – but there was never any trace of our cubs. About this time the director paid a short visit to Seronera. I asked him if I might be allowed to spend a few nights inside my car, near to where I thought the cubs would be. I explained that it seemed hopeless to look for them by daylight but that they would probab
ly be attracted by my headlights. He did not, however, feel able to grant me this permission so I carried on as before.

  We now searched as close as we could to the hills on the far side of the river.

  The dry season had come and the animals were now dependent on waterholes and such rivers as did not dry up.

  This was the time of year when poachers’ activities were at their height. Since they knew exactly where the animals must pass to quench their thirst, the wardens worked very hard to counteract their activities and it was horrifying to see the number of snares, poisoned arrows and spears which they confiscated and to realize how small a proportion of the total of weapons and traps these represented: wire for snares is cheap and can be bought from any Indian trader.

  All over East Africa poaching, drought, floods and the legal destruction of wild animals to make place for men and their crops, threaten the survival of wild life. The idea that they may one day become extinct appals me. The longer I live among animals the more I want to help them and the more I believe that in helping them we also help man, for if we exterminate all the wild animals we shall upset the balance of creation of which we ourselves are a part. A Quaker paper has made a very apposite remark on our relationship to animals, saying that we are apt to overlook the fact that when in the beginning man was said to have been given dominion over the animals he was without sin, for he had not then disobeyed God, and he lived in daily communion with him.*

  As I drove out daily in search of the cubs, I had plenty of time to wonder why man should be divorcing himself from natural life; yet the many letters I received about the Elsa books assured me that an immense number of people would in fact like to live a life which kept them in relation with nature and wild animals; I thought how much they would enjoy seeing, instead of only reading about, the lioness and her cubs which at that moment were blocking our track, stretching out lazily in the sun and not showing any intention of letting us go by (and whose track was it anyway?).

  As the days passed in fruitless search, I became more and more depressed and finally wrote to George asking him to come back and help me to find the cubs.

  A few days later the director and a park warden visited my camp. I took the opportunity to renew my previous request to be allowed to spend a few nights out in the car in the hope that the cubs would be attracted by the headlights and I also asked if I might be allowed to walk up the escarpment and in the hills, if necessary escorted by an armed African ranger. I stressed again the condition of Jespah’s wound and the youth of the cubs. The director replied that at the trustees’ next meeting he would put my requests before them; meanwhile he suggested that I should write the chairman. This I did.

  One evening while I was typing I was startled by hearing an English voice and looking round saw three men. They were farmers from Kenya who were on holiday and they had pitched their camp within a few hundred yards of mine. Seeing my light they had walked across to invite me to have a drink with them.

  I was startled that they should have crossed even this short distance without a light, and I pointed out that there were lions about and plenty of cover for them. The men laughed at my anxiety, but accepted my lamp to guide them back.

  The next night I dined with them and was astonished to see that they had no tent and slept in the open on camp beds only five inches off the ground. When I asked them what they would do if a lion called on them while they were sleeping they laughed and obviously regarded me as a nervous woman.

  Next morning we met again at the rivulet below the camp site; we had to stop as our path was barred by a pride of thirteen lions, which kept us waiting a long time. Eventually the pride moved off and we were able to go on. The farmers left that day and when I returned in the evening I found a bottle of wine and a letter telling me to cheer up and stop worrying about who called in after dark. I hoped they were right but still thought it asking for trouble to sleep in the open on such low camp beds.

  On 1 July I received a telegram from George saying that he would arrive on 4 July. Meanwhile I went on searching.

  On my way home I was stopped by a safari party who told me that, the night before, a pair of lions had passed within a few yards of their tent and that one of them was limping.

  On my return I found George in camp. He had been away nearly a month and had now taken ten days’ leave and so anxious was he not to waste a moment of it that he had driven all through the night.

  In spite of lack of sleep he was ready to start off at once in search of the cubs, but first he gave me the director’s reply to our appeal to the trustees asking for permission to sleep out. It only said that the trustees had discussed our letter and that he was writing officially to let us know what they decided. He added that he hoped we would feel that they had not been unsympathetic in the matter. This didn’t tell us much but made us hopeful.

  Knowing that the park warden had been to Arusha and was expected back that evening I called on him. He had brought the letter from the director; this stated that if we agreed to certain conditions we could sleep out for not more than seven nights, offer the cubs water and cod-liver oil, walk where we liked, at our own risk, and George could carry firearms for self-defence. The director added that he had obtained permission to move the cubs to Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanganyika, where, since it was not a national park, we should be able to stay on with them; he however left it entirely to us whether to move them or not.

  The conditions referred to were: that we immediately send cages to the area in which we were searching; if and when we found the cubs come to a decision about moving them or leaving them where they were; if they were not to be moved then we were to leave the park and expect no more exceptions to be made for us; if we decided for the move, we were to let the park warden know immediately; we were to make no kill without permission from the park warden, and were to keep him informed every other day about what was going on.

  Driving back to camp I passed a safari party which had just arrived and had pitched their tents a few hundred yards from ours. They also were farmers from Kenya.

  We then packed our cars for a week’s absence. As a result of camping out among wild animals for many years I have become a light sleeper and that night I woke to hear the distant engine of a car. Some moments later the park warden arrived and told us to move at once into the cars as a lion had taken a visitor from a camp near ours and was still prowling around. He asked if we had any morphia with us as there was none in Seronera. The man had been badly mauled. Luckily George had two ampoules, so we gave the warden these and all our supply of sulphonamide. He told us that there was a charter plane in the area which could take the injured man at first light to Nairobi, then assuring us that there was nothing we could do to help, he left and not long afterwards we heard the plane take off.

  Meanwhile George had told Nuru and the rest of our staff to light lamps and keep awake.

  Very early we went to the scene of the incident, only three hundred yards from our camp, to find out whether the friends of the unfortunate man needed any help. Our spooring revealed that the two lions had come past our camp and gone along the car track leading to the next camp and had stopped abreast of it. The spoor was that of two male lions; one was considerably larger than the other. The bigger lion had gone up to the camp fire, seized a large enamel jug and bitten through it, an indication of the capacity of his jaws. The camping party had consisted of five people, a married couple who had a tent of their own, the entrance flaps of which they had closed for the night, and three men who shared a tent. The night was warm so the men had not put up their mosquito nets and had placed their low camp beds in a row. They lay with their heads at the entrance of the tent which they left open. One had placed a basin set on a stand behind his head, the man next to him had the middle tent pole as a protection but the third had nothing between him and the world outside. During the night the farmer in the middle bed, woken by a low moaning sound, noticed that his neighbour’s bed was empty and disarranged. He switched
on a torch and, fifteen yards away, saw a lion with his friend’s head in its mouth. He roused the camp, and two African servants very courageously rushed towards the lion; one flung a panga (a long knife) at it. Possibly this hit the lion for he dropped the man, bit viciously at the handle of the panga and moved a short distance away. The injured farmer was quickly rescued. Meanwhile the lion continued to circle the camp and was only kept off by having a car driven towards him.

  Among the visitors at the lodge there was a European dresser who was able to attend to the farmer’s wounds, and then the park wardens and their wives cared for him until the plane was able to take off and fly him to Nairobi; unfortunately his wounds proved fatal and he died on the operating table.

  This was the first fatal accident to take place in the Serengeti since it became a national park. That morning two of the park wardens shot both lions. The larger one was found to have a septic wound in his shoulder, which no doubt was a serious handicap to his hunting activities. In such circumstances any lion in any part of Africa will not hesitate to kill a human being.

  38. We See the Cubs Again

  The director arrived by plane that morning and we had a talk with him. He confirmed the concession to sleep out in the cub valley for seven nights but so far as preparing for feeding the cubs should we find them emaciated, he advised us not to cross our bridges before we came to them, and added that in an emergency the park warden might be able to help us. George had only eight days’ leave left so we decided that we would not have time to collect the crates though this was a condition mentioned in the letter. In any case we could not know whether or not they would be needed. Before we could start we had to move our camp to Seronera, as in view of the accident no more camping was to be allowed till security measures had been taken.