Susanne Hart (1927 in Vienna, Austria – 2010) in South Africa), also known under the short form Sue Hart or as Susanne Harthoorn, was a South African veterinarian and environmentalist.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Susanne Widrich [1] spent most of her childhood in England. After her graduation from Heatherton House in Amersham and the Royal Veterinary College in London in 1950 she initially worked at the Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In the 1950s she moved to Port Elizabeth in South Africa where she soon married a South African named Dennis Solomon. [2] The marriage ended in divorce after a few years and Sue Hart had to raise two children on her own. Sue Hart's second husband was veterinarian Antonie Marinus Harthoorn whom she had known since college. He was notable for the development of the M-99 (etorphine hydrochloride) capture drug and its accompanying gun, the capture gun, for darting big game animals. He was known by the Swahili name Daktari (Swahili: doctor).
In 1964, Sue and her husband moved to Kenya where they met George Adamson. Adamson became Sue Hart's mentor and she learned all about handling wild animals from him. Sue Hart and Toni Harthoorn built up a wildlife orphanage which became noteworthy for its pioneering operations on cheetahs and lions, including the eye surgery on George Adamson's lion, Ugas. After Hungarian-born American television producer Ivan Tors became aware of this project he was so impressed by the work of the Harthoorns that he used it as inspiration for the television film Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion and the series Daktari .
In 1967, Susanne Hart was one of the readers in the BBC children's television series Jackanory . In the mid 1970s she returned to South Africa. In 1985, Hart founded and championed the non-profit organisation Ecolink which supports children who lost their parents due to AIDS.
Dr Sue Hart died on 6 January 2010, after a stroke. Her funeral was held at Ecolink.
Elsa the lioness was a female lion raised along with her sisters "Big One" and "Lustica" by game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy Adamson after they were orphaned at only a few days old. Though her two sisters eventually went to the Netherlands' Rotterdam Zoo, Elsa was trained by the Adamsons to survive on her own, and was eventually released into the wild.
Friederike Victoria "Joy" Adamson was a naturalist, artist and author. Her book, Born Free, describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa. Born Free was printed in several languages, and made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. In 1977, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.
George Adamson MBE, also known as the Baba ya Simba, was a Kenyan wildlife conservationist and author. He and his wife, Joy, were depicted in the film Born Free and best-selling book with the same title, which is based on the true story of Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lioness cub they had raised and later released into the wild. Several other films have been made based on the Adamsons' lives.
Virginia Anne McKenna, OBE, is an English stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films A Town Like Alice (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), Born Free (1966), and Ring of Bright Water (1969), as well as her work with The Born Free Foundation.
Meru National Park is a Kenyan national park located east of Meru, 350 km (220 mi) from Nairobi. Covering an area of 870 km2 (340 sq mi), it is one best known national parks in Kenya. Rainfall in this area is abundant with 635–762 mm (25.0–30.0 in) in the west of the park and 305–356 mm (12.0–14.0 in) in the east. The rainfall results in tall grass and lush swamps.
Katrina Louise Warren is an Australian veterinarian, best known as the co-host of several popular television programs on channel 7.
Daktari is an American family drama series that aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The series is an Ivan Tors Films Production in association with MGM Television starring Marshall Thompson as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the fictional Wameru Study Center for Animal Behavior in East Africa.
James Marshall Thompson was an American film and television actor.
Antonie Marinus Harthoorn, or 'Toni' Harthoorn was a veterinarian and environmentalist known for his role in the development of large-animal tranquilizers and their impact on the conservation movement. Additionally, Harthoorn's animal sanctuary was the inspiration for the television series Daktari.
Anthony Raymond Fitzjohn, OBE is a conservationist who worked extensively with George Adamson at Kora in Africa. In recognition of his service to wildlife conservation, Fitzjohn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006.
Cheryl Lynn Miller is an American actress and musician.
Safari West is a 400-acre (160 ha) private wildlife preserve located 12 miles north of the city of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, United States, owned and operated by Nancy and Peter Lang.
Ralph Helfer is an American animal behaviorist, creator of Marine World/Africa USA, and author of books about animals.
Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion is a 1965 light comedy-adventure film, produced by Ivan Tors, Leonard B. Kaufman, and Harry Redmond Jr., directed by Andrew Marton, and starring Marshall Thompson and Betsy Drake. The film was shot at Soledad Canyon near Los Angeles, California, and in Miami, Florida. It became the basis for the television series Daktari.
Bondi Vet is an Australian factual television series. It follows the lives of veterinary surgeon Chris Brown at the Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital, and emergency veterinarian Lisa Chimes at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH), in the Sydney suburb of North Ryde.
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a Ugandan veterinarian and founder of Conservation Through Public Health, an organisation dedicated to the coexistence of endangered mountain gorillas, other wildlife, humans, and livestock in Africa. She was Uganda's first wildlife veterinary officer and was the star of the BBC documentary, Gladys the African Vet. In 2009 she won the Whitley Gold Award for her conservation work.
Animal Planet is a Dutch pay television channel broadcasting nature-related documentaries in the Netherlands and Flanders. The channel launched as a Pan-European feed on 1 July 1997. It is operated by Discovery Benelux.
Scott Sims DVM was an American veterinarian and television personality. He is best known for his factual television series Aloha Vet, which aired in 2015.