Woman of the Week – Joy Adamson

While she’s not a scientist or engineer, her conservation work over the course of her life is something we can all appreciate. Joy Adamson is best known for her work with Elsa the Lioness, among many other lions and big cats.

In 1956, Joy's husband, George Adamson, in the course of his job as game warden of the Northern Frontier District in Kenya, shot and killed a lioness as the lioness charged him and another warden. George later realized the lioness was just protecting her cubs, which were found nearby in a rocky crevice. The couple decided to take the cubs home and care for them. However, they quickly realized what a large task this was. The two largest cubs, named "Big One" and "Lustica", were passed on to be cared for by a zoo, 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. Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild. She was the first lioness known released lion to have a litter of cubs after living part of her life in captivity. The couple followed Elsa and the cubs throughout the rest of their lives, but getting close enough only to photograph them.

In January 1961, Elsa died from 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. In The Story of Elsa, a compilation of the books about Elsa, she wrote: "My heart was with them wherever they were. But it was also with these two lions here in front of us; and as I watched this beautiful pair, I realized how all the characteristics of our cubs were inherent in them. Indeed, in every lion I saw during our searches I recognized the intrinsic nature of Elsa, Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa, the spirit of all the magnificent lions in Africa.”

Credit: http://www.biography.com/people/joy-adamson-37508

During her lifetime, Joy created more than 500 paintings and line drawings. Her work included the people of Kenya, botanical and animal paintings, and studies of Elsa. Joy developed a very close relationship with Elsa, she in fact noted in her book Born Free, which chronicled Elsa’s life, “that the lion became almost like my child. Because I had no children, I have spent all my emotion on her and my other animals. But I cannot make them my own."

Born Free (1960) became an international best seller, and its success put the spotlight on the need to preserve African wildlife. She wrote two more books about Elsa and her cubs, Living Free (1961) and Forever Free (1962). In addition to her writing, Adamson established her own conservation group, the Elsa Wild Animal Appeal.

While Elsa was alive, Joy and George Adamson needed each other to educate her, but after she died and her cubs were taken in by the zoo, their interests went in separate directions, as did their lives. The couple never officially divorced, they lived separate lives after raising their lions. George wanted to continue work with lions, while Joy wanted to work with cheetahs. Every year, they got together for Christmas, and they remained on good terms.

Joy’s life ended tragically, in fact, so did her husband’s. On January 3rd 1980, in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya, Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Peter Morson. He mistakenly assumed she had been killed by a lion, and this was what was initially reported by the media. A police investigation found Adamson's wounds were too sharp and bloodless to have been caused by an animal, and concluded she had been murdered. Paul Nakware Ekai, a discharged laborer 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.

She was several weeks shy of her 70th birthday when she was killed.

George Adamson was murdered by Somali bandits 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. He was 83.

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/joy-adamson-37508#born-free

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Adamson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamson

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/08/kenya.conservation