Joy Adamson Raising Funds For Animals’ Conservation

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30279, 4 November 1963, Page 2

Joy Adamson Raising Funds For Animals’ Conservation

Animal lovers in New Zealand who so eagerly followed the story of Elsa the tame lioness and her cubs, through a series of books written by Mrs Joy Adamson, will have an opportunity of learning more about the famous lion family first hand this month.

Mrs Adamson, who with her husband reared Elsa in Kenya, arrived in Christchurch yesterday, to begin a series of lectures, in which she will show films and slides of the lions.

Though she had never been to New Zealand before, she felt she had friends here, Mrs Adamson said after her arrival yesterday. Among the “fan mail” that had arrived for Elsa were a number of letters from this country, and Mrs Adamson said she would be meeting some of those who had written.

Though Elsa herself came to an untimely end, her name lives in the name of a fund which is being raised to help develop game reserves in Kenya, in which animals at present threatened .with extinction can be placed for their safety and preservation. The need was urgent, Mrs Adamson said, and the sum of £112,000 was wanted. It was with the aim of swelling the “Elsa Appeal” fund that Mrs Adamson began her tour. She has so far lectured in South Africa and Australia, and after completing her lectures here, she will go on to the United States. Her first address will be in Invercargill this evening, and she will then work her way north, making her Christ-

church appearances later this week. Royalties from books about Elsa also go into the fund, which is used to equip and organise teams to capture and transfer threatened animals to the safety of reserves. An Austrian by birth. Mrs Adamson has lived in Kenya for 26 years, and the brightness of her face and eyes as she speaks of it shows that it is now the only home for her.

Her husband, now retired, was a game warden in an area larger than the total size of New Zealand. As well as wild animals and their welfare. Mrs Adamson is keenly interested in flowers and painting, and par-

ticularly enjoys painting studies of native flora. Her work has been used to illustrate a number of books. As this is her first visit to New Zealand, she is looking forward to seeing some of the native flowers. Flying over Mount Cook, on her way from Melbourne to Christchurch, her first thought was that she would like to be able to see what alpine plants there were in the mountains, she said. Anthropology is another of her interests, and she is writing a book on several East African tribes. This idea originated with a request for her to do a series of paintings of tribal life among the natives She did several hundred, and had gathered so much material that she decided to write a book as well.