Elsa the lioness live in the wild. Her efforts paid off, earning Elsa worldwide fame at the time, when her early life’s story was published in the book "Born Free". When Elsa was three years old, she brought three cubs of her own to show to the Adamsons, whom the Adamsons named “Jespah” (male), “Gop (male), and “Little Elsa” (female). The life of Elsa and her cubs is covered in the book "Living Free", published not long afterwards. Elsa's died prematurely of a form of babesiosis, a tick-borne blood disease similar to malaria which often infects the cat family. Elsa’s grave is in
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