George Adamson

George Adamson (born February 3, 1906 in Dholpur in the state of Rajasthan , India , † August 20, 1989 in Kenya ) was a British naturalist.

Life

In 1924, George Adamson first visited Kenya . In 1938 he joined the Kenya Game Department . He worked as a gamekeeper and ran safaris. In 1944 he married Friederike-Viktoria Bally (née Gessner), who was called Joy.

In 1956, Adamson found three lion cubs whose mother had been shot. The Adamsons raised the animals in their home. After six months, when the three were almost fully grown, the two larger animals were sold to the Rotterdam Zoo . The smallest lioness, Elsa , stayed with the Adamson family. Their slow release into the wild began at the age of two. George Adamson's wife meticulously recorded Elsa's fate and processed her notes on the book Born Free. A lioness in two worlds . Almost all of the proceeds from the book, which was translated into 33 languages, went to the animal welfare organization “Elsa Wild Animal Appeal”. When Elsa returned to the Adamsons with three cubs shortly after her final release into the wild, the second book The Lioness Elsa and Her Cubs was written . The BBC filmed the life story of Elsa.

Adamson gave up his position as gamekeeper in 1963 and from that point on devoted himself only to the observation and research of the lions.

On January 4, 1980, his wife, now separated from him, was found dead. Because of the injuries, it was initially concluded that lions had killed them. However, the autopsy found it to be human fault and the perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison.

Adamson also died a violent death nine years later; he was shot dead by Somali poachers in Kora National Park .

Fonts

• Safari of my life , translated from English by Karl Berisch and Johannes Piron, Hamburg 1969 (Original Bwana Game , 1968), Hoffmann and Campe
• My lions - my life

Web links

• Literature by and about George Adamson in the catalog of the German National Library