George Adamson, the “Lion Man” of Africa, was one of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation. He was best known through the book and film Born Free, the story of Elsa, the orphaned lioness raised and released into the wild by Adamson and his wife, Joy.

In 1970 George moved to Kora and rented the land from the Tana River council to continue his work on the rehabilitation of captive lions to the wild, and to develop the infrastructure of the area and the recovery of its wildlife habitat. In this he was joined by his brother Terence Adamson and by Tony Fitzjohn. Due to their presence in Kora, the area was upgraded to a national reserve in 1974 and to a national park in 1989 upon George’s death.