by Joy Adamson
* In fact she was probably stretching her retractile claw muscles.
* Is it a coincidence that when two years later I visited the Rome Zoo on my way to London, I saw a couple of lions mating and as the last gesture of the siring act, the male bit the lioness on the forehead? Soon afterwards I saw the same action take place in the same circumstances in the London Zoo.
* There are two types of lion in Kenya:
1. Felix massaica – buff-coloured with a yellow mane.
2. Felix leo somaliensis – smaller with larger ears, more pronounced spots and a longer tail. Elsa belongs to the somaliensis type.
* We often wondered why Elsa never produced cubs as a result of being with a lion while she was in season. Later I learned from a zoo authority that during the four relevant days the male sires the female at least six to eight times a day and that it is thought that it is only on the fourth day that the siring becomes effective. If this is so, it is obvious that Elsa never had sufficient opportunity, as the jealous lioness, holding guard over her male, would not be likely to tolerate too frequent love-making with a newcomer to the pride.
* Dry river bed.
* Eastward to Eden’, The Friend, 5 August 1960
Joy Adamson was a pioneer in the field of conservation. With her husband George, senior game warden in a huge area of the northern frontier province of Kenya, she established one of the world’s first wild animal appeals. Now the Elsa Conservation Trust, it operates an education, training and wildlife retreat centre at the Adamson’s former home of Elsamere, on the shores of Lake Naivasha.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Born Free
Living Free
Forever Free
FOR CHILDREN
Elsa: The Story of a Lioness
Elsa and Her Cubs
Joy Adamson showing off the three rescued cubs (Elsa, Lustica and ‘Big One’) who soon became a key part of the family menagerie.
Elsa and her two sisters were tiny cubs when they were rescued. Joy hand fed the cubs, first using a flexible rubber tube taken from their radio until feeding bottles could be fetched from fifty miles away.
The cubs soon made the Adamsons’ home their own.
As the cubs grew, it would become impossible to house all of them. Lustica and ‘Big One’ were found homes in Rotterdam Zoo . . .
. . . but Elsa would remain living with the Adamsons.
Although Elsa was domesticated, George and Joy always intended to return her to the wild and encouraged her natural hunting instincts, even from an early age.
George and the rangers took Elsa on trips to the land where she would be eventually released to practise hunting.
At first she needed help, but soon she was felling prey such as this buffalo on her own.
Despite her new found resourcefulness, she was still firmly part of the family and reliant on her human companions.
Joy had an extraordinary bond with Elsa and the affection shown towards one another continued as Elsa became increasingly independent.
Though George was focused on Elsa’s rehabilitation, there was still much affection between them.
Joy’s relationship with Elsa proved important to her work as a naturalist. Being able to get so close to Elsa allowed Joy unparalleled insight into the lion.
Joy, already an acclaimed botanical artist, turned her eye to the animal kingdom, sketching and painting Elsa in remarkably relaxed poses.
By now fully grown and an accomplished hunter, it was time for Elsa to be released back into the wild. Although the release was heartbreaking for the Adamsons, they were mindful that she had been born free.
The Adamsons kept a watchful eye on Elsa as she adapted to life in the wild and made new friends.
The Adamsons knew Elsa had been pregnant but were concerned that they hadn’t seen her cubs. Joy was overwhelmed when Elsa brought her three healthy cubs across the river to meet them .
Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa were born in the wild just like their mother, but unlike her, they would grow up there.
Any fears Joy and George might have had about Elsa’s maternal instincts were dispelled when they saw the family together.
Elsa was as friendly as ever towards the humans who had raised her, and allowed them to get close enough to the cubs to observe them, although the Adamsons were careful not to interfere too much.
The family’s time together was to be tragically short lived owing to Elsa’s untimely death at the age of five from an infected tick bite.
The Adamsons were worried about the fate of the three adolescent cubs. They were not yet independent enough to properly fend for themselves, and their experience with humans meant they began to encroach on local farmers’ lands, threatening their livestock.
For the cubs’ own protection, it was decided to relocate them to a game reserve in the Serengeti. Though the cubs had become increasingly wary of humans, the Adamsons eventually caught them and released them into their new home.
In 1960, Joy wrote of her experiences raising Elsa in the bestselling book Born Free which was adapted into an Academy award-winning film. In 1980 Joy was tragically murdered on her reserve, but her conservation work continues through the Elsemere Trust.
First published 1966 by Collins and Harvill Press as The Story of Elsa
This edition published 2010 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-330-53675-2 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-53674-5 EPUB
Text and photographs copyright © Joy Adamson 1966
The right of Joy Adamson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.