Austrian-born Kenyan conservationist and author Joy Adamson kneels and scratches the face of the lioness Elsa, whom she raised.
The lioness was the subject of a 1960 international bestseller Born Free, which chronicled how author Joy Adamson raised an orphan cub in Kenya with her husband George, a game warden, and released it back into the wild. Columbia Pictures adapted the story into an Academy Award-winning 1966 film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who subsequently started the Born Free Foundation, a wildlife conservation group. Animal rights activists believe Elsa’s story debunks the notion that all wild animals are ruthless killers that should be kept in captivity.