Elsa the lioness (c. January 1956 to January 24, 1961) was raised by game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy Adamson in Kenya. Elsa and her two sisters, 'Big One' and 'Lustica', first came under the care of the Adamsons when only a few weeks old. They had become orphaned when George was reluctantly forced to kill their mother during one of his safaris. (He was hunting for a male manhunter, but when a female charged him, he fired in self defence. After the lioness was dead, it was apparent that she was defending her cubs.) Her two sisters were eventually sent to the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands, while Elsa herself remained with the Adamsons until she was released into the wild, following the Adamsons' efforts to train her to survive on her own.
Famous quotes containing the word lioness:
“He that loves not his wife and children feeds a lioness at home, and broods a nest of sorrows.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)