born free --Elsa the lioness

                                                         

                         Each time i read about  a  book about animals the more  i respect  them and the people who go out of their way from the "normal " life  to live  in their midst  . The current book i am reading is Born Free a book written by Joy Adamson about her experiences in caring for a lion cub named Elsa . In the book which is a must read for any animal lover she recounts her day to day life  from  the days when Elsa was a few weeks old  to  her  growth into a full grown female lioness weighing more than 150 kilograms . Joy Adamson wife of senior game warden George Adamson got the cub when it was a few weeks old  . She nurtured it  and  it lived in their camp in Kenya , africa . Though brought up in human company gradually  they introduced it to the wild and Elsa started hunting on her own starting with small baboons and gradually larger prey .  Inspite of her fierce hunting tactics whenever the lioness came to visit  them it  used to show its affection .  Even for me an ardent watcher  of animal planet channel it was new information that  many of the behaviour of  lions like killing prey by suffocation is instinctual because Elsa the lioness since it was brought up by Joy and George Adamson didnt have its mother to teach her how to kill prey .  Similarly  right from young age she used to stalk and even challenge large animals like buffalo many times its size . 

The two things i have great respect or admiration after reading half the book is
1.  the lion which with a single swipe could break the neck of many animals including humans never attacked Joy or George Adamson (its parent equivalents  )  .  This  becomes all the more important as after about an year  most of the time it was in the wild hunting  and returned  to the camp for some time  .  So much for the "wild animal instinct "  .
2.  Joy and George Adamson for bringing up a lion fearlessly and often the lion used to sleep "unchained " in their tent  .  How many of us could do that  ?  Just  like you and I  go to the shopping mall  looking carefully both sides when crossing the road  these people lived in the wild bush  country all their lives walking , working , camping in the african wilderness. They could have lead a much "normal life "  living in London or Paris sipping  tea  and going for safari vacations  .

                                                Now , the surprise and tragic ending  many years later  .  The book was written around 40 years back  ,  both Joy and George Adamson died much later in 1980s and both had tragic deaths  .  Elsa died long back  so they  were not killed by Elsa the lioness . George till he died used to take care of many lion cubs and  Joy  many cheetahs and leopards .  But they were not killed by  any of their wild pets nor by wild elephants/crocodiles/hippos .  They were killed in separate incidents nine years apart  Joy  by  her    ex -domestic servant   and   George  Adamson by poachers  while he tried to save a tourist  from them   .  So the question  remains who is  more dangerous  ---man or animal  ?