But Elsa was different. She joined the fray as an underdog, for no one really stood for her.
The lions, being too busy fending for their respective prides, would obviously have no time for some orphaned cubs. In fact, these other lions would normally be the greatest danger to the lone unguarded cubs. Adult males will always sniff the life of any cub they haven't fathered. It's their very nature to do that. Pity and sympathy will fetch you very little accolades in the Lion Kingdom. That's just the way it is. And in the extremely unlikely event that another pride would be willing to adopt the cubs, that would attract serious danger to the pride's own cubs. From marauding males and jealous females alike. It would be an extra burden, in an already unforgiving wild of the Meru National Park, where Elsa and her siblings were born. Any other animal species would maybe, have teamed up, to ensure the young's growth, what with the untimely death of their mother. But these were lions. Their world is different. Starkly different. In their world, death is the order of the day. Death has to occur, in order for them to eat. A life has to depart, for theirs to be sustained. There are no two ways about it. You either take, or you are taken. Period. Simple rule of the Lion wild world.
Now the trouble with Baby Elsa, she began her life on a losing note. As if she was born prey, though she belonged to a renowned family of hunters. If hunger doesn't get her, the hyenas will. Or the fox, on her way to the beauty pageant contest. She was that defenseless. Without Mama, her dice was cast. She was a goner. Like some scholar said, you do not respond to a mosquito bite with a hammer. Maybe that's why no one saw it fit to waste valuable energy killing some cubs that nature would kill anyway. Within days. I guess the males were too busy with the real, wild issues (A king will not sit on his throne to settle a domestic quarrel, when there is the issue of that meteor, that is rumored to be on a collision course with his Kingdom), to take notice of this small distraction .
The Odds.
Elsa, was a baby whose odds were placed mightily against her. For her biggest foe, he who took her mother's life, when she was only a few days old, also turned out to be her biggest defender. A stroke of luck. I say this because when the gentle conservationist, George Adamson, shot her Mum, it was in self-defense. Or he would have made dinner for Elsa and her sisters. He'd realize later, that the reason this huge lioness left from the bushes going for his throat, was because, back in that grassland, lay her little cubs. And he'd made the mistake of going too close to them. So Mama was only doing what all Mothers do best; Defend her family. But that leap, was Mama's last. Because George, who years later, ironically also died by the bullet, missed nothing with his rifle from such a point-blank range .So when the shots rang out, and birds fled from the park's treetops in fright and flight, Elsa's Mum lay dead. And Adamson was to make the cubs discovery later with a sunken heart. In that instant, Elsa and her sister's, 'Big One' and 'Lustica' were instantly orphaned, for Mama was raising them on her own. I guess Daddy had much earlier fled to Timbuktu, when the pregnancy results returned a positive result.
The lions, being too busy fending for their respective prides, would obviously have no time for some orphaned cubs. In fact, these other lions would normally be the greatest danger to the lone unguarded cubs. Adult males will always sniff the life of any cub they haven't fathered. It's their very nature to do that. Pity and sympathy will fetch you very little accolades in the Lion Kingdom. That's just the way it is. And in the extremely unlikely event that another pride would be willing to adopt the cubs, that would attract serious danger to the pride's own cubs. From marauding males and jealous females alike. It would be an extra burden, in an already unforgiving wild of the Meru National Park, where Elsa and her siblings were born. Any other animal species would maybe, have teamed up, to ensure the young's growth, what with the untimely death of their mother. But these were lions. Their world is different. Starkly different. In their world, death is the order of the day. Death has to occur, in order for them to eat. A life has to depart, for theirs to be sustained. There are no two ways about it. You either take, or you are taken. Period. Simple rule of the Lion wild world.
Now the trouble with Baby Elsa, she began her life on a losing note. As if she was born prey, though she belonged to a renowned family of hunters. If hunger doesn't get her, the hyenas will. Or the fox, on her way to the beauty pageant contest. She was that defenseless. Without Mama, her dice was cast. She was a goner. Like some scholar said, you do not respond to a mosquito bite with a hammer. Maybe that's why no one saw it fit to waste valuable energy killing some cubs that nature would kill anyway. Within days. I guess the males were too busy with the real, wild issues (A king will not sit on his throne to settle a domestic quarrel, when there is the issue of that meteor, that is rumored to be on a collision course with his Kingdom), to take notice of this small distraction .
The Odds.
Elsa, was a baby whose odds were placed mightily against her. For her biggest foe, he who took her mother's life, when she was only a few days old, also turned out to be her biggest defender. A stroke of luck. I say this because when the gentle conservationist, George Adamson, shot her Mum, it was in self-defense. Or he would have made dinner for Elsa and her sisters. He'd realize later, that the reason this huge lioness left from the bushes going for his throat, was because, back in that grassland, lay her little cubs. And he'd made the mistake of going too close to them. So Mama was only doing what all Mothers do best; Defend her family. But that leap, was Mama's last. Because George, who years later, ironically also died by the bullet, missed nothing with his rifle from such a point-blank range .So when the shots rang out, and birds fled from the park's treetops in fright and flight, Elsa's Mum lay dead. And Adamson was to make the cubs discovery later with a sunken heart. In that instant, Elsa and her sister's, 'Big One' and 'Lustica' were instantly orphaned, for Mama was raising them on her own. I guess Daddy had much earlier fled to Timbuktu, when the pregnancy results returned a positive result.
So you see. The odds, like i said, were stacked against these three. And even though the imposing Rotterdam Zoo made room for 'Big one' and 'Lustica', Adamson made Elsa stay, so he could raise her on his own. Think of it as his way of correcting a wrong he'd perpetrated, albeit involuntarily. He made her stay, so she could fight for her place in The Meru wild. The Dutch could have Big One and Lustica. But they were not about to deny us the privilege of hosting arguably the most famous lioness, since the man eaters of Tsavo, who have since become permanent residents of some museum in Chicago, Illinois, as if The East African Railway, which gave them their notoriety and fame, was constructed in the United States. We were keeping our Elsa.
There was nothing about her that suggested fame or near celebrity status. No one could have told that she would pack movie Theaters decades later, half-a world away, in Las Vegas and Hollywood, Los Angeles. Or prod the world to move millions of dollars, in conservation efforts, like it did, not so long afterwards, for the endangered majestic Tiger in Sri Lanka, also half a world away. Even George and his wife Joy, attributed huge chunks of their fame to this elegant Lioness.Their cause's destiny and effectiveness was effectively transformed single-handedly by the amazing feats accomplished by her.The Big Cat diary,The Marsh pride, all these owe their fame and success to Elsa, for she made it before them, thus swinging the world's spot-light to the big cat of Africa.
There was nothing about her that suggested fame or near celebrity status. No one could have told that she would pack movie Theaters decades later, half-a world away, in Las Vegas and Hollywood, Los Angeles. Or prod the world to move millions of dollars, in conservation efforts, like it did, not so long afterwards, for the endangered majestic Tiger in Sri Lanka, also half a world away. Even George and his wife Joy, attributed huge chunks of their fame to this elegant Lioness.Their cause's destiny and effectiveness was effectively transformed single-handedly by the amazing feats accomplished by her.The Big Cat diary,The Marsh pride, all these owe their fame and success to Elsa, for she made it before them, thus swinging the world's spot-light to the big cat of Africa.
The Adamsons were heard more, listened to more, respected more. Even studied more. The Leakey's almost pale in comparison, their selfless efforts not withstanding. Because, unlike The Adamsons, they had no Elsa, of their own. Tragic.
Now, when three years after her mum's death, and months after her own successful re-introduction into the wild, Elsa showed up with cubs of her own at the Adamsons enclosure, nothing could have been more gratifying to the conservationist. Not all that begins on the downward, spirals further downward. Unless you let it. You stop digging, if you wake up to the fact that you are already in a hole, as a sign that, for you, the only place you are headed is upwards. He beamed with pride, and felt he'd repaid his debt, though not in full. He'd killed Elsa's Mum, yes in self-defense. But he'd raised Elsa the best way he knew how, and here were her cubs to prove it.Wow!.
Hope In Adversity
It took a grotesque picture of a starving child, with a vulture lurking in the background in wait, to swing the world into action in unprecedented proportions, to save Ethiopia, Southern Sudan and the Sub Sahara region from starvation , way back in the eighties. In the absence of that picture, the world, as we know it, was a mere few weeks away from an irreparable imbalance on humanity and the Eco-system, albeit largely in one region. A hunger-caused imbalance. I do not know if this particular child lived to see another day, or if she made dinner for the vulture. But she saved millions of lives. Her suffering eased the suffering of others. Hard to understand, but true.
Now, when three years after her mum's death, and months after her own successful re-introduction into the wild, Elsa showed up with cubs of her own at the Adamsons enclosure, nothing could have been more gratifying to the conservationist. Not all that begins on the downward, spirals further downward. Unless you let it. You stop digging, if you wake up to the fact that you are already in a hole, as a sign that, for you, the only place you are headed is upwards. He beamed with pride, and felt he'd repaid his debt, though not in full. He'd killed Elsa's Mum, yes in self-defense. But he'd raised Elsa the best way he knew how, and here were her cubs to prove it.Wow!.
Hope In Adversity
It took a grotesque picture of a starving child, with a vulture lurking in the background in wait, to swing the world into action in unprecedented proportions, to save Ethiopia, Southern Sudan and the Sub Sahara region from starvation , way back in the eighties. In the absence of that picture, the world, as we know it, was a mere few weeks away from an irreparable imbalance on humanity and the Eco-system, albeit largely in one region. A hunger-caused imbalance. I do not know if this particular child lived to see another day, or if she made dinner for the vulture. But she saved millions of lives. Her suffering eased the suffering of others. Hard to understand, but true.
Sometimes dawn may take long in coming. But it always comes eventually.
Maybe the Sudanese kid never made it. But the current crop of Southern Sudan leaders, Singers, Writers, Educationists etc, all probably owe their very existence to her. And the photographer who took heart-wrenching picture, like the pilot who dropped that load aboard the plane christened 'Enola Gay' on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was forever transformed by what he saw. So much so, that years later, when he could handle the guilt no more, Kevin Carter, a South African photographer ,tragically chose to take his own life.Only a few, in a world of billions, even know of the existence of that kind of human suffering, leave alone being witnesses to it.And those who do witness it, are never the same again.
Back to Elsa. She's buried inside Meru National Park. Or rather, the park is buried inside her. Her genes roam the earth, refusing to fade away, even as mankind keeps encroaching on what's rightfully theirs. Every time a pride conquers a valley, a hill, a grassland, i like to think its because Elsa chose to live. And God knew the reason why he sent George in Elsa's way. And Joy. And other unsung heroes of the wild, who trained and cared for Elsa, forcing her to go out there and hunt even when all she wanted was her peace, and saw her blossom into the one Lioness that, even after her re-introduction to the wild, refused to completely sever ties to man.
She went on to conquer the wild too, and only a bout of Babesis, more like Malaria to humans, could put her to sleep. And even that, it had to be on Adamson's lap. She went out on her terms.
A Hotel's Honor For The Hunter.
Now her name, emboldened in eternal gold, is etched firmly in the annals of history. And life itself.
A Hotel's Honor For The Hunter.
Now her name, emboldened in eternal gold, is etched firmly in the annals of history. And life itself.
And like her offspring, now roaming the grasslands of The Serengeti, where George eventually had her offspring moved to, so will we. Multiply. Grow. Spread, far and wide. She defied death, when she stood zero chance of survival. And even in death, she defies it some more, refusing to fade away. She seems to live more in death. Rising from obscurity to celebrity status, and surgically healing an ailing tourism industry, then on its deathbed, swinging the world's attention to this East African nation, richly endowed.
In tribute to this great addition to life, and to every one else who beats the odds, overturns the patterns, the sequence and the normal, who challenges the 'order' while daring to dream, stands the elegant posture of Elsa Hotel, Meru.Kenya.
Long Live Elsa.
