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  It was late in the afternoon by the time we reached our destination; there we were met by a friend who is the Game Warden of this district. We pitched camp on a superb site at the base of a 1,000-foot escarpment overlooking a vast plain of open bush country, through which a belt of dark vegetation marks the course of a river. As we were at an altitude of 5,000 feet, the air was fresh and brisk. Immediately in front of our camp lay open grassland sloping towards the plain, on which herds of Thomson’s gazelle, topi, wildebeeste, Burchell’s zebra, roan antelope, kongoni, and a few buffalo were grazing. It was a game paradise. While the tents were being pitched we took Elsa for a stroll and she rushed at the herds, not knowing which to follow, for in every direction there were animals running. As if to shake off the effects of the ghastly journey, Elsa lost herself among these new playmates, who were rather astonished to find such a strange lion in their midst; one who rushed foolishly to and fro without any apparent purpose. Soon, however, Elsa had had enough and trotted back to camp and her dinner.

  Our plan was this: we would spend the first week taking Elsa, perched on the roof of the Land Rover, round the new country, thus getting her used to it and to the animals, many of which belonged to species which do not live in the Northern Frontier and she had therefore never seen. During the second week we intended to leave her overnight, while she was active in the bush, and to visit and feed her in the mornings when she was sleepy. Afterwards we would reduce her meals, in the hope that this would encourage her to kill on her own, or to join a wild lion.

  On the morning after our arrival we started our programme. First we took off her collar, as the symbol of liberation. Elsa hopped on to the roof of the Land Rover and we went off. After only a few hundred yards we saw a lioness walking parallel to us downhill; she passed close to many antelope who took no notice of her, realizing no doubt from her determined steady stride that, at the moment, she was not interested in killing. We drove closer to the lioness. Elsa displayed much excitement, jumped off her seat and, making low moaning noises, cautiously followed this new friend. But as soon as the lioness stopped and turned round, her courage failed her and she raced back as fast as she could to the safety of the car. The lioness continued her purposeful walk, and we soon detected six cubs waiting for her on a small anthill in tall grass.

  We drove on and surprised a hyena chewing a bone. Elsa jumped off and chased the startled animal, who had only time to grasp her bone and lumber away. In spite of her ungainliness, she made good her escape but lost her bone in the process.

  Later we passed through herd after herd of different antelope, whose curiosity seemed to be aroused by the sight of a Land Rover with a lion on it and allowed us, provided that we remained in the car and did not talk, to approach within a few yards of them. All the time Elsa watched carefully, but did not attempt to leave the car unless she spotted an animal off guard, grazing with its back towards her, or fighting; then she would get down quietly and creep forward with her belly close to the ground, taking advantage of every bit of cover, and thus advance towards her victim. But as soon as the animal showed any suspicion, she either froze to immobility or, if the situation seemed better handled in another way, she pretended to be uninterested, licked her paws, yawned, or even rolled on her back until the animal was reassured. Then she would at once start stalking again. But however cunning she was, she never got close enough to kill.

  The little Thomson’s gazelles provoked Elsa, very unfairly, relying on the unwritten law of the bush that a superior creature will not attack a smaller one, except for food. They are the real urchins of the plain, most inquisitive and always busy with their tails. Now they challenged her, teased her and simply asked to be chased; but Elsa only looked bored, ignored them and, with dignity, put them in their place.

  Buffalo and rhino were quite another matter. They had to be chased. One day, from the car, we watched a buffalo cantering across the plain. Perhaps his curiosity was aroused by seeing a lion on the Land Rover. Quickly Elsa jumped to the ground and, using the cover of a bush, set out to stalk him. The buffalo had the same idea and also used this cover but starting from the opposite direction. We waited, and watched, until we saw them nearly collide. Then it was the buffalo who bolted, with Elsa bravely following him.

  On another occasion, from her seat on the Land Rover she saw two buffaloes asleep in a bush. Off she went; bellows, crashing, and a wild commotion followed, then the buffaloes broke through the thicket and galloped away in different directions.

  Rhino too were most inviting; one day we came upon one standing fast asleep with its head buried in a bush. Elsa stalked him very carefully and succeeded in nearly rubbing noses with him. Then the poor beast had an abrupt awakening, gave a startled snort and, looking bewildered, spun round on himself and dashed into a nearby swamp. There he churned up the water and gave Elsa a shower-bath; she splashed on after him; outlined against high sprays of water, the pair disappeared from our sight, and it was a long time before Elsa returned, wet but proud.

  She loved climbing trees, and sometimes when we had looked in vain for her in the high grass we found her swaying in the crown of a tree. More than once she had difficulty in getting down again. Once, after trying various possibilities, and making the branch she was on bend alarmingly under her weight, we saw her tail dangling through the foliage, followed by her struggling hind legs, till finally she fell on to the grass well over twenty feet below. She was most embarrassed at having lost her dignity before an audience, for, while she always enjoyed making us laugh when she meant to do so, she hated being laughed at when the joke was against her. Now she walked quickly away from us and we gave her time to regain her self-respect. When we looked for her later on, we found her holding court with six hyenas. These sinister creatures sat in a circle around her, and I felt rather nervous for her. But as though to offset her earlier clumsiness in the tree she now showed us that she was very superior to the hyenas who bored her. She yawned, stretched herself and, ignoring the hyenas, walked up to us. The hyenas hobbled off, looking over their shoulders, perhaps puzzled by the appearance of Elsa’s strange friends.

  One morning we followed circling vultures and soon found a lion on a zebra kill. He was tearing at the meat and paid no attention to us. Elsa stepped cautiously from the car, miaowing at him and then, though she did not get any encouragement, advanced carefully towards him. At last the lion looked up and straight at Elsa. He seemed to say, ‘Don’t you know lion etiquette? How dare you, woman, interfere with the lord while he is having his meal? You are allowed to kill for me, but afterwards you have to wait till I have had my lion’s share, then you may finish up the remains.’ Evidently poor Elsa did not like this expression and returned as fast as she could to the safety of the car. The lord continued feeding and we watched him for a long time, hoping that Elsa might regain her courage; but nothing would induce her to leave her safe position.

  Next morning we had better luck. We saw a topi standing, like a sentry, on an anthill, looking intently in one direction. We followed his glance and discovered a young lion resting in the high grass, sunning himself. He was a magnificent young male with a beautiful blond mane, and Elsa seemed attracted by him. Just the right husband for her, we thought. We drove to within thirty yards of him. The lion looked mildly surprised when he saw his prospective bride sitting on the top of a car, but responded in a friendly manner. Elsa, apparently overcome by coyness, made low moans but would not come off the roof. So we drove a little distance away and persuaded her to get down, then, suddenly, we left her and drove round to the other side of the lion: this meant that she would have to pass him in order to reach us. After much painful hesitation, she plucked up enough courage to walk towards the lion. When she was about ten paces away from him, she lay down with her ears back and her tail swishing. The lion got up and went towards her with, I am sure, the friendliest intentions, but at the last moment Elsa panicked and rushed back to the car.

  We drove away with her and, strangely enough, r
ight into a pride of two lions and one lioness on a kill.

  This was luck indeed. They must have killed very recently for they were so intent upon their meal that however much Elsa talked to them they paid not the slightest attention to her. Finally they left the kill, their bulging stomachs swinging from side to side. Elsa lost no time in inspecting the remains of the carcase, her first contact with a real kill. Nothing could have served our purpose better than this meal, provided by lions and full of their fresh scent. After Elsa had had her fair share, we dragged the kill back to the handsome young lion who had seemed so friendly. We hoped that if Elsa provided him with a meal he would have a favourable opinion of her. Then we left her and the kill near to him and drove away. After a few hours we set out to see what had happened but met Elsa already halfway back to the camp. However, since this lion had shown an interest in her, we took her back to him during the afternoon. We found him still in the same place. Elsa talked to him from her couch as though they were old friends, but had plainly no intention of leaving the car.

  To induce her to quit her seat, we drove behind a bush and I got out but was nearly knocked over by a hyena who dashed out of his cool retreat, in which we then found a newly killed baby zebra, no doubt provided by the blond lion. It was Elsa’s feeding time, so regardless of the consequences, she jumped out of the car on to the carcase. We took this opportunity to drive away as fast as we could and left her alone for her night’s adventure. Early next morning, anxious to know the outcome of the experiment, we set off to visit her, hoping to find the happy pair. What we found was poor Elsa, waiting at the spot at which we had left her, but minus the lion and minus the kill. She was overjoyed to see us, desperate to stay with us, and sucked my thumbs frantically to make sure that everything was all right between us. I was very unhappy that I had hurt her feelings without being able to explain to her that all we had done was intended to be for her good. When she had calmed down and even felt safe enough in our company to fall asleep, we decided, rather sadly, that we must break faith with her again and we sneaked away.

  Till now we had always given her her meat already cut up, so that she should not associate her food with living animals. Now we needed to reverse our system, so during her midday sleep we drove sixty miles to shoot a small buck for her. We had to go this distance because no one was allowed to shoot game near the camp. We brought her a complete buck wondering if she would know how to open it, since she had had no mother to teach her the proper way of doing it. We soon saw that by instinct she knew exactly what to do; she started at the inner part of the hind legs, where the skin is softest, then tore out the guts, and after enjoying these delicacies, buried the stomach contents and covered up the blood spoor, as all proper lions do. Then she gnawed the meat off the bones with her molars and rasped it away with her rough tongue.

  Once we knew that she could do this it was time for us to let her do her own killing. The plain was covered with isolated bush clusters, ideal hideouts for any animal. All the lions had to do, when they wanted a meal, was to wait under cover until an antelope approached down wind, rush out and get their dinner.

  We now left Elsa alone for two or three days at a time, hoping that hunger would make her kill. But when we came back we always found her waiting for us and hungry. It was heartbreaking having to stick to our programme, when obviously all she wanted was to be with us and sure of our affection. This she showed very clearly by sucking my thumbs and holding on to us with her paws. All the same we knew that for her good we must persevere.

  By now we realized that it was going to take us much longer to release her to nature than we had expected; we therefore asked the government if we could use our long leave in the country for the purpose of carrying out this experiment and, very kindly, they consented. After receiving this permission we felt much relieved since we knew that we should now have the time required for our task.

  We increased the number of days on which Elsa was left on her own and we reinforced the thorn fences round our tents, so that they were strong enough to keep any lion out. This we did specifically to prevent Elsa from visiting us when she was hungry.

  One morning, when she was with us, we located a lion, who seemed placid and in a good mood: she stepped off the car and we tactfully left the pair alone. That evening while sitting in our thorn-protected tent, we suddenly heard Elsa’s miaow and before we could stop her, she crept through the thorns and settled down with us. She was bleeding from claw marks and had walked eight miles back, obviously preferring our company to that of the lion.

  The next time we took her a longer distance away from camp.

  As we drove we saw two eland bulls, each weighing about 1,500 lb, engaged in a fight. Elsa promptly jumped off the car and stalked them. At first, they were so engaged in their fight that they did not notice her, but when they became aware of her presence she narrowly missed a savage kick from one of them. They broke off the fight and Elsa chased them a short distance and finally came back very proud of herself.

  Soon afterwards we met two young lions sitting on the grass in the open. They looked to us ideal companions for Elsa, but by now she was very suspicious of our tricks and would not leave the car, although she talked very agitatedly to them; as we had no means of dropping her off we had to miss this opportunity and went on until we met two Thomson’s gazelle fighting; this sight caused Elsa to jump off and we drove quickly away, leaving her to learn more about wild life.

  It was nearly a week before we returned. We found her waiting, and very hungry. She was full of affection; we had deceived her so often, broken faith with her, done so much to destroy her trust in us, yet she remained loyal. We dropped some meat which we had brought with us and she immediately started to eat it. Suddenly we heard unmistakable growls and soon we saw two lions trotting fast towards us. They were obviously on the hunt and probably they had scented the meat; they approached very quickly. Poor Elsa took in the situation and bolted as hurriedly as she could, leaving her precious meal. At once a little jackal appeared which up till now must have been hiding in the grass; he lost no time in taking his chance and began to take bite after bite at Elsa’s meat, knowing that his luck was not going to last long. This proved true for one of the lions advanced steadily upon him, uttering threatening growls. But meat was meat and the little jackal was not to be easily frightened away; he held on to his possession and took as many bites as he could until the lion was practically on top of him. Even then, with unbelievable pluck he tried to save his meal. But size prevailed over courage and the lion was the winner. Elsa watched this scene from a distance and saw her first meal, after so many days, being taken away from her. In the circumstances it seemed hard that the two lions took no interest in anything but their food and completely ignored her. To compensate her for her disappointment we took her away.

  While we were in camp we had some human visitors. The first party came to look at game. George asked them in and was just about to explain that we had a tame lioness in camp, when Elsa, having heard the car, came bounding in, full of curiosity and friendliness. They looked a little startled, to say the least of it, but took it very well.

  Later a Swiss couple, having heard that we had a lion cub, came to see it. I think they had visions of something small which could be picked up and cuddled, but seeing the 300-odd pound Elsa on the roof of the Land Rover made them pause, and it was a little time before we could persuade them to get out of their car and join us at lunch. Elsa was courtesy itself, welcomed the strangers, and only once swept the table clear with her tail. After this, they could not have enough of her and had themselves photographed with her at every angle.

  We had been in camp for four weeks and although Elsa had spent most of the last fortnight in the bush, she had not yet started killing for herself. By now, the rains had begun and every afternoon there were heavy showers. The conditions in this region were very different to those at Isiolo; for one thing it was much colder, for another while the ground at Isiolo is sandy and dries
within a few hours, here there was black cotton soil which turns into a morass after rain; moreover, it is covered with waist-high grass which prevents it drying for weeks on end. At home Elsa had enjoyed the rains and had been invigorated by them, but here she was very miserable.

  One night very heavy rain fell without stopping; at least five inches came down before daybreak and the country was flooded. In the morning we waded out often knee-deep in mud, and we met Elsa already halfway back to the camp. She looked so unhappy and wanted so desperately to stay with us that we took her home. That evening we suddenly heard a terrified galloping come past our camp followed by a stillness. What drama was happening outside? Next arose the hysterical chuckles of hyena mingled with the high-pitched yells of jackal, but these were soon silenced by the growls of at least three lion. We realized that they must have killed just outside the camp. What a chance for Elsa. But while we listened, fascinated, to the grandiose chorus of shrill, piercing staccato noises interspersed with deep guttural rumblings, she rubbed her head against us and showed how glad she was to be inside the thorn fence in our company.

  After a few days the rain decreased and we renewed our efforts to turn Elsa into a wild lioness. But she had become so suspicious of being deserted again that we had great difficulty in inducing her to follow us into the plains.

  She did, however, in the end accompany us and we met two lionesses who came hurriedly towards the car, but Elsa bolted from them and seemed more nervous than ever.

  It was evident that in this place she was scared of lions, so we decided not to go on trying to force her to make friends with them, but to wait till she came into season again, then perhaps she would choose her own mate by mutual attraction.