Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson was a very famous naturalist. She was born in Austria in 1910 and died in 1980 in Kenya. She wrote "Born Free" about raising a lion cub named, Elsa.

In 1956, Joy's husband, George Adamson , in the course of his job as game warden  in Kenya, shot and killed a lioness.George later realized the lioness was just protecting her cubs. Taking them home, Joy and George found it difficult to care for the all the cubs needs. The two largest cubs, 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  and spent many months training her to hunt and survive on her own. Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release, and the first known released lion to have a litter of cubs.

 Using her own notes and George's journals, Joy wrote Born Free. Published in 1960, it became a bestseller. She spent the rest of her life raising money for wildlife.