Mara the Lioness domesticated dog. Along with animal lovers, naturalists and experienced game wardens, they held the belief that integration back into the wild would harm Mara, rather than benefit. Mara did not fear man and indeed went out of her way to approach and play. This posed an enormous risk to her safety. In addition, release into the wild would place Mara and the other lionesses at risk of contracting "Babesia". Domesticated animals have no resistance to the fatal disease, a fact which George and Joy Adamson knew. Their lion Elsa had died of the same disease not less than two years
Bartlett Adamson Bartlett Adamson George Ernest “Bartlett” Adamson (22 December 1884 – 4 November 1951) was an Australian journalist, poet, author and political activist. Adamson was born at Cascade, Ringarooma, Tasmania, on 22 December 1884 to a Scottish miner, George Adamson, and his English wife, Jane, nee Bartlett. He was educated at Zeehan and Dundas and then worked as a clerk at a mine. The family moved to New Zealand where he worked as a clerk with publishers Whitcomb and Tombs in Wellington. He was rejected for military service during World War I on medical grounds. He married Scottish-born Mary Anne McLachlan