Born Free--The Story of a Lioness

One of my favorite animal stories of all time is the story of Elsa the Lioness, the subject of the books Born Free, Living Free, and Forever Free. These books inspired me to write about animals in the same way that its author, Joy Adamson did. The books tell the story of how a couple raised an orphaned lion cub and, trained her to live in the wild, and released her. But, the story doesn't end there. Elsa continued her friendship with Joy and her husband, George, throughout her life and even had cubs of her own.

Joy and George Adamson made a lot of mistakes while trying to restore Elsa's life in the wild. Afterall, it was the 1950s and this was the first time anyone's been successful in releasing a lion back into the wild up to that point. However, as time went on, the Adamsons learned and corrected their mistakes to not only help Elsa and other lions, but other wildlife. Adamson's books helped people realize that lions are not just programmed killing machines, but feeling creatures with their own preferences, problems, and personality.

The photo of the lioness in this module was provided by Paul Mannix from Flickr.

This is the only known video taken by an Isiolo police officer of his son playing with Elsa, Lustica, and the "Big One". At that time, Joy Adamson didn't have her own video camera.

In Joy Adamson's second book, Living Free, she describes anxiously waiting the arrival of Elsa's cubs which were born while Joy Adamson is out of the country trying to publish her book, Born Free. Elsa brings her cubs right into camp and up to the Adamsons who decide to keep their distance so that the cubs remain as wild as possible. One cub, Jespah, particularly captures Joy's heart and becomes her favorite. The other male cub, Gopa, is less friendly and Little Elsa is they shiest of all.

In the meantime, the Adamsons are facing a challenge with Elsa getting in fights with other lions. It turns out that they released her in another pride's territory and the resident lioness wasn't happy about it. Elsa would often arrive in camp with wounds from fighting. At that time, the Adamsons didn't know about lion territories and prides. They thought that Elsa would join up with a pride not knowing that prides are exclusively made up of related females and their young and do not accept outsiders except the adult males that will become their mates. It was one of the mistakes that they had to learn from in order to help lions in the future.

The photo in this module was provided by Imagine Extra via Flickr.

Elsa the lioness unexpectantly dies before her cubs are fully able to take care of themselves. As a result, the cubs become a nuisance and begin killing the local livestock. One of them, Jespah, receives an arrow to his hindquarters of which the head becomes completely embedded. Luckily, it was a child's arrow and was not poisonous. Measures are taken to remove the cubs from Meru, the park that they were born in Kenya, and release them into the Serengeti in Tanzania. They have a hard time capturing all three cubs at once and it takes quite a while to do so.

After the cubs are finally captured, they are driven 632 miles their final location. They stay near where they were released, at first. However, the park officials had made it difficult for the Adamsons to stay and look after them. They were forced to move out of the park and become a standard park tourist instead of having the special privileges they used to have. After they left, the cubs pretty much disappeared. The Adamsons did find them from time to time, at first, but, eventually, it got to the point that they were never seen again. George Adamson was sure that he, at least, saw Little Elsa near a pride, though, much later. There is one report on another website that Jespah was speared by an African, but there is no confirmation of that. A lion that fit the description of Jespah was reported to the Adamsons many months after they left the Serengeti, but they never saw him.

The photo in this module was provided by Mara 1 on Flickr.

In 1964, production began on the movie version of Born Free starring Bill and Virginia Travers. Most of the consulting and lion handling was done by George Adamson along with other lion trainers. Joy Adamson had little to do with the production as she was deemed to be very difficult to handle. At one time, she was even banned from the set. George took care of all the lions' needs and was the main go-to guy about the accuracy of the film to the original story. The movie premiered in 1966.

After the filming was over, George took in as many of the lion actors as he could so that he could rehabilitate them into the wild. He essentially, set up a makeshift pride consisting of his favorite lion, Boy, Ugas, and Boy's sister, Girl among others. Later, George Adamson acquired more lions including Katania the lion cub and the famous Christian the Lion.

In 1972, a sequel was produced called "Living Free" which starred Nigel Davenport and Susan Hampshire. However, this movie was actually based on the book "Forever Free" and was not quite as good as the movie Born Free.

The photo in this module is provided by Blieusong on Flickr.

After the production of Born Free, George and Joy Adamson, more or less, separated. This is partially because they were working on two different projects. Joy was working with cheetahs and George continued working with lions which were incompatible with each other. Though they saw each other from time to time, they were never like the married couple they once were while they were dealing with Elsa.

Joy wrote two books about a cheetah named Pippa and her four broods of cubs. Then, she moved on to a leopard named Penny for a few years and also moved from Meru reserve to Shaba reserve. While at Shaba, she got into a dispute with one of her workers who murdered her in 1980.

George continued on working with the Born Free lions as well as other lions he had acquired since the movie. His brother Terrance, joined him and began setting up a camp to work with leopards. George became an advocate on wildlife conservation and preservation and often discussed the environmental destruction happening around him in media interviews. He began to notice the decline of lions and other animals and prophesied that, eventually, there will be no more lions left. In 1989, George Adamson was killed by bandits while trying to protect a friend from being raped. He is buried next to his favorite lion, Boy and his brother, Terrance, who had died a few years earlier.

The photo of George Adamson in this module is from Wikimedia Commons from Granville Davies

There was recently a show on PBS Nature that highlighted Elsa's life and her contribution to her kind. It had actual footage taken by the Adamson's. Virginia Travers, one of the stars of the movie version of Born Free, was interviewed while visiting Elsa's grave. David Attenborough, who filmed a BBC story of Elsa (and was greeted by her when she sat on him while he was in his bunk), is also interviewed. This is a must-see for any Adamson or Elsa fans. You can watch it for free by clicking on the link below.

Here are some videos of George and Joy Adamson's work including segments of the movie, Born Free, A Lion named Christian, and other specials with the couple. Some of the quality may be poor due to the fact that all of these were shot on film between the late 1950s and the late 1980s.

Here is a small list of my favorite items about George and Joy Adamson. I have personally read and viewed each one of them.

Both George and Joy Adamson set up funds to start and support their own charities to protect and preserve the wildlife of Africa.