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On Christmas Eve 1942 Mr and Mrs Bally attended a party in Kenya. Peter Bally was a Swiss botanist. Her wife, whom he called Joy, was doing paintings on the wildlife of Africa. She had been born in Troppau, in the northern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Opava, in the Czech Republic), and had come to Kenya in 1937. Also present at the party was George Adamson, who had been living in Kenya since 1924. After trying various jobs, including road building, farming, gold prospecting, and safari guiding, Adamson had found the job that suited him perfectly: he had become a game warden.

Joy and George fell in love. Joy divorced Peter Bally and in 1944 she married George Adamson. So began a remarkable story of a remarkable couple, a story set in the Kenyan wilderness, a story that was as much international as it was African.

As a game warden, George Adamson was responsible for an area the size of Great Britain. He could rely on the support of rangers he had recruited. Some of them were converted poachers, who had an in-depth knowledge of the region and its wildlife. In 1956 George was forced to shoot a lioness charging one of his colleagues. When the animal was dead, Adamson heard cries from among the nearby rocks. Checking the crevices he found the three cubs of the lioness. He brought them to camp, where they were taken care of by Joy. The couple thought they could not cope with three lions, so they kept the smallest, whom they named Elsa, and sent the other two to the Rotterdam Zoo. Later, George Adamson thought it was a mistake not to keep all three cubs.

The Adamsons decided to return Elsa to the wild, which was a pioneering endeavour. Thanks to the training sessions devised by the Adamsons, Elsa learned how to survive in the wild on her own. She even had a litter of cubs. Elsa became a wild lion, but maintained her relationships with humans and regularly returned to the Adamsons’ camp. Some of the Adamsons’ guests were quite surprised how friendly Elsa was. In 1960 David Attenborough visited the Adamsons to make a film about Elsa. He went to bed after the long and exhausting journey. He was woken up by Elsa, who was lying on him…

Unfortunately, Elsa contracted a tick-borne disease and by the time the medicine arrived at the remote camp it was already too late. Elsa the lioness died in 1961. The Adamsons had to take care of Elsa’s cubs, who were eventually released into the Serengeti National Park.

Joy and George documented the events meticulously in their diaries, made a huge number of photos and filmed some of the most important happenings. Born Free, Joy Adamson’s account of the extraordinary story was based on these sources. The book received favourable critics and became an international bestseller. Two sequels followed: Living Free and Forever Free. Joy donated the proceeds from the books to the conservation of African wildlife.

Elsa and her foster parents were so popular that the story had to be told in movie form. Starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, Born Free came out in 1966 and became a box office hit. George served as adviser on the lions, while Joy checked that the animals were treated humanely. A total of 24 lions were used during the shooting of the film. Some of them came from circuses, others arrived from private collections or were orphaned cubs. Once the filming was over, the Adamsons and the stars who played them in the movie wanted to save and rewild all lions. Unfortunately, most of the animals were sent to zoos. However, they were allowed to rehabilitate three lions.

The Adamsons devoted their lives to returning big cats to the wild. After the rehabilitation of the initial few lions, Joy Adamson turned her attention to cheetahs and leopards, while George Adamson continued his work with lions. This was a parting of the ways for them: they started to live in separate locations. However, they did not divorce, remained on friendly terms, and respected each other’s work.

When Joy Adamson received a female cheetah who had been kept as a pet, she immediately started a rehabilitation project. Thanks to Joy’s love and perseverance, the cheetah learned to hunt, became self-sufficient, and raised several cubs. The life of Pippa the cheetah is immortalised in Adamson’s books The Spotted Sphinx and Pippa’s Challenge.

In 1976 Joy Adamson acquired an orphaned leopard whom she named Penny. After some training Penny was gradually released into the wild in the Shaba Reserve; her adventures are described in the volume titled Queen of Shaba.

Besides working with her animals, writing books, and painting, Joy frequently delivered lectures virtually all over the world. She promoted conservation issues and raised money for her Elsa Conservation Trust. She was still very active when she was getting close to her 70th birthday.

On the evening of January the 3rd, 1980, Joy Adamson did not arrive back at camp from her usual evening walk. Her dead body was discovered some 200 m from the camp, lying on the road. At first it was thought she had been killed by a lion, but it soon turned out that she had been stabbed to death by one of her employees. The police caught the murderer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Also known as Baba ya Simba (father of lions in Swahili), George Adamson was the friend and protector of lions. In addition to the three lions from the movie, he received numerous orphaned, rescued, and captive-bred lions. One of them was flown by KLM from Rotterdam to Africa free of charge. George Adamson’s goal was to ensure that these animals have a chance to live in the natural environment they belong to.

In 1970 George Adamson settled at Kora to continue his rehabilitation programme in a mostly unspoiled environment. The camp, a few thatch-covered huts surrounded by a fence, was situated in the middle of nowhere, deep in the African bush, isolated from civilisation. George Adamson lived with his brother Terence, some African employees, and the lions. In 1971 Tony Fitzjohn joined the staff. He received no salary but enjoyed working with lions and was a huge asset to Adamson. They would sleep under the stars, get up before dawn, and spend time with the lions in the morning and the afternoon. ‘The feeling of tranquillity and unity with nature that we experienced when we were out walking with the lions was a major part of why I loved my life so much,’Footnote 1 Fitzjohn wrote. After noon they used to have a siesta, as neither the lions nor the men wanted to move in the boiling hot weather. In the evenings they talked, read books, or listened to the radio.

The camp was known as Kampi ya Simba, i.e. Camp of the Lions. But, in addition to the lions, there were countless other interesting animals around and in Adamson’s camp. Among the visitors were numerous agamas, birds, ground squirrels, porcupines, mongooses, and a civet cat, while scorpions and snakes belonged to the more frightening guests.

The introduction of lions to the wild was a risky job. Lions are potentially dangerous: working with them requires constant alertness. The tiniest human failure can have fatal consequences. When one of the lions wounded the child of the local park warden, Adamson had to move his camp to another location. In 1977 Adamson himself was seriously bitten by one of the lions, which was all the more problematic when taking into account that the nearest medical post was some 130 km away.

But it was not the lions who represented the greatest threat at Kora. The area was controlled by poachers and bandits, who decimated the wildlife and did not hesitate to kill humans. On August the 20th, 1989, near Adamson’s camp, bandits stopped a car with two persons inside: a German woman who was visiting Adamson, and her security escort. The assailants fired some shots, dragged the man out of the car and broke his legs, and attacked the woman. Upon hearing the gunfire, Adamson grabbed his revolver, sprang into his car with his staff, and drove to the scene. They were met with a hail of bullets. Adamson and two of his employees were killed but the ensuing confusion allowed the German woman and her escort to escape. George Adamson was laid to final rest in Kora, near the grave of his brother and that of his beloved lion called Boy.

The Adamsons had to kill animals to support their felines, though they killed only as many as was absolutely necessary. Their approach remains controversial, but their results cannot be denied. They succeeded in reintroducing several big cats to the wild. Some of these animals were killed by man, some died of natural causes, but many survived and their descendants still live in Africa.

The indirect impact of the Adamsons’ work is probably even more significant. Their exceptional relationships with animals became world-famous and changed people’s attitudes towards great predators. After Born Free the animals that had previously been considered savage beasts started to be regarded as individuals having charismatic personalities, as unique characters worthy of protection. The Adamson’s dedication raised public interest in the conservation of African wildlife. The incomes from the books and the movie were used to fund conservation projects, and both Joy and George supported anti-poaching patrols. Kora was declared a national park largely due to the activity of George Adamson. Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers were so impressed by the animals that they set up the Born Free Foundation, which works to protect and help both free-living and captive animals.

Today the populations of all three species of African big cats are decreasing. Lions, leopards, and cheetahs are threatened by habitat loss, hunting, poisoning, the decline of prey populations, the illegal trade in their body parts believed to be of medicinal value, and unregulated tourism. ‘Destroying the wilderness, and robbing its prospects of peace and of game, man leaves only the promise of danger. He has killed ten of my lions and murdered my wife,’Footnote 2 George Adamson wrote.