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This was a rather bittersweet book. It was full of some beautiful - and utterly shocking - moments, but also parts that were quite sad and downright horrific. It was, all in all, a good book. I am sort of surprised that the focus was more on the people, and less on the actual animals. It was more of a memoir about this couple than the book on nature that I expected. Still, it had some fascinating moments in it.
LOVED this book! Thank you for sharing!
I don't really know how to rate this book. It wasn't bad or anything, but it also wasn't a book I'd go raving about. However, it might not exactly be the book's fault. It felt like more of a follow-up book, so I probably should have read one of their others ones first (maybe the first one). I feel like this book is meant for people who have already read their other books and already are aware of their conservation work and their story. However, I will say that despite that, I'm not a huge fan of...
I love Africa stories. They bring back my memories of being so close to the bone of wildness as a child. The fearlessness of this couple of researchers astounds me. When you KNOW the animals, you know when to take precautions and more importantly, when to sit still and observe. I loved every bit of this story and am going to read everything they've written. Yea for Alexandra Fuller as well, another favorite author. If you love Africa, you will love this.
Without community there is no legacy, and having read about the life's work of two people, I finished the book sorely wishing for a lasting legacy.The story of Gift, which threads its way through these journal-like essays by Mark and Delia Owens, offers hope of such a legacy. Gift was a young orphan elephant. She is not with a herd, and Delia doesn't expect Gift to survive. Few orphan elephants do. However, she keeps catching glimpses of the elephant and hopes. Ninety-three percent of elephants
A good book. The true story of Mark and Delia Owens and their work in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. Over the course of 20 years they turned back the tide of poaching in the area returning a viable elephant population along with the rise of quite a number of other African species. Using microloans to give the local tribes a better alternative to thrive outside of poaching. Similar to their Cry of the Kalahari which I read years ago.
3.5 for me, but I’m rounding up to a 4. The book shouldn’t be held accountable just because I’m not a huge fan of nonfiction.Some people live an incredibly adventurous life. Put Delia and Mark Owens in this group. I’d last one night in their camp, and I’d be on my way home the very next morning.Delia wrote some chapters; Mark wrote the other chapters. She is the better writer.I won’t get into a discussion here, but there are some interesting similarities between Delia Owens’ life and the life of...
Between the blurb and 5* reviews there is little that I can add except that the reviews don't really capture the joy of their youth in Ohio and Georgia. Or their sense of loss not only in the American habitats that have been lost from nature, but the way of life of their parents and grandparents. Not just true for them. Truly enjoyed 'Where the Crawdads Sing' but this is the one that I'll be encouraging people to read.
The authors spent two decades on a game preserve in northern Zambia studying its endangered wild life and working for its preservation. When they arrived in 1986, a park which is approximately the size of Delaware, had 2 game wardens and two rifles to fight a well-funded, well armed, large number of ivory poachers which was decimating the elephant population. Alongside their academic study of elephants, they vigorously lobbied for aggressive banning of international trade in ivory, worked with N...
This is the third book by Mark and Delia Owens. The first two were phenomenal. The first, Cry of the Kalahari, features the couple going into the Botswana desert and setting up camp for years to study the animals, mostly lions. The place is so desolate, not even the native bushmen live there. It's a crazy idea they have, and you love them for it and what they endure. The second book, The Eye of the Elephant, is not nearly as well known, but is their most compelling book. Every single incident, p...
Mark and Delia Owens have spent a lot of time in Zambia, living their life as those people that we are often jealous of who take breathtaking pictures with binoculars and some soft looking animal in the background. Or not soft, but still intriguing, like elephants. Secrets of the Savanna is about their experience in Africa trying to save the elephants that are being poached on for their tusks. There is a lot more to the story then the elephants, such as the villagers, the politics of the area, a...
I read this third book in preparation for a forthcoming trip to Namibia and Botswana, following the authors' other two books. I'm not sure how the Owens managed to avoid being trampled or gored in their years of encounters with buffalo, lions, and angry elephants, not to mention being shot by poachers, but I’m an avid armchair adventurer and loved reading about their interesting lives. This book was a bit uneven, thematically, and also a bit repetitive with odd bits of retrospection but, still,
The book kept me very engaged with the switch from one author to the next. I found their conservation work applaudable. I've read all of Lawrence Anthony's books about his conservation work and absolutely loved them so this didn't fully stack up to any of those. I lost a great deal of respect for the author during the epilogue when he brings up population control. The hypocrisy of conservation of a group of mammals while wishing the demise of another was a bit shocking.