It was the 1st of February 1956, out in the bushes in Kenya’s Northern Frontier District, when Lioness heard the footsteps of an approaching human. Having just birthed three cubs, her maternal instinct was on high alert. Lioness crouched low, camouflaged by the long dry grass, and charged at the invader.
Bang!
The loud gunshot sound cracked the day’s stillness, and Lioness shuddered and fell onto the ground heavy and still. The game warden, who had fired the fatal shot, breathed deep and lauded his quick wit for having survived this attack by a whisker. As he surveyed the bushes from which Lioness had emerged, he noticed some slight movement. Upon closer inspection, he found three cubs huddled together, unaware of the fate that had befallen their mama. Guilt ridden by having orphaned these lions, he took them home determined to nurture them.
For six months, the lions remained in the care of the warden and his wife, lazing around the compound or sauntering off to a nearby waterfall to quench their thirst. The sound of this waterfall as it spilled over large boulders on the Tana River’s path and ruptured its flow was soothing, and the place became a second home to the lions. This was the norm until August that year, when the little ones were not so little anymore.
Two of the cubs, Big One and Lustica, were becoming harder to keep tame and it was finally time for the game warden and his wife to find them a new home. Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands was the selected place. As the two lions were loaded onto the truck, Elsa – the smallest of the litter – watched sadly as her sisters were driven off. Little did Elsa know that changes were coming her way too. After the departure of Big One and Lustica, the couple knew that it was also time for Elsa’s domesticated life to come to an end.
After months of training, Elsa’s natural instincts finally kicked in. Having regained her ability to hunt and protect herself, she was reintroduced back into the wild where she lived out the rest of her life. But Elsa never forgot her caregivers; once she became a mama herself, she visited the couple that raised her with her cubs in tow. Out on the grassy savannah, Elsa introduced her cubs to the waterfall that her and her sisters used to frequent when growing up.
It was hoped that that Elsa would continue thriving in the wild as she had done since her release, but in 1961 she fell ill and passed away due to tick disease. In her final moments, Elsa made her way to the camp where she was raised, lay her head on the game warden’s lap, and breathed her last. Saddened by the loss of one of their cubs, the couple gave Elsa a memorable sendoff complete with a salvo of 20 gunshots over her grave. They hoped that wherever Elsa’s mate and cubs might be, they would hear the volley and pause for a while.
Elsa’s grave is in existence to date, as well as the camp where she grew up. Not too far from this camp is the waterfall from which Elsa drank, a place that nurtured her as she transitioned from a domestic lion to a wild cat. When this couple passed away, the woman in 1980 – killed by a servant over a wage dispute, and the man in 1989 – murdered by bandits while rescuing a stranded tourist, the waterfall was renamed to memorialize Elsa’s human family. They were Joy and George Adamson, and the falls are the Adamson Falls.
Today, a visit to the Adamson Falls takes one to Meru National Park. Here you get to take in the panoramic views of the landscape as you listen to the sound of the water coursing through the rocks. Elsa’s final resting place is in this vicinity as well, her legacy remembered with each telling of the story of Adamson falls.
Share photos of these falls with us and also let us know: what was the name of Adamson Falls before?
