Mara the Lioness the movie "Born Free") the only lion. By 1965 the park held 117 orphans of 36 species including lion, leopard, cheetahs, african buffalo, camels, hyena, jackal and wild dogs. It took many months for Mara to settle into her new home where she was affectionately known as the "friendly lioness". The Grindlays, as self-appointed guardians, remained in frequent contact. Mara had only been in the Animal Orphanage for about six months when the "Born Free" film crew arrived. They were looking for lionesses to play the part of Elsa and decided that Mara would make an ideal adult Elsa. Seventeen
George Worsley Adamson "Meet My Folks!" (1961); this was followed by the drawings he did for Ted Hughes's first book of children's stories, "How the Whale Became" (1963), and those for the first edition of " The Iron Man" (1968). In 1970, Adamson illustrated the book based on Richard Carpenter's television series "Catweazle"; this was followed in 1971 by the drawings he did for the book based on the second series, "Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac". In the 1980s, he illustrated the first five of the Richard Ingrams and John Wells "Dear Bill" books for "Private Eye". Besides work for books, Adamson undertook