Recommendation: Secrets of the Savanna

Owens, Delia & Mark. Secrets of the Savanna: twenty-three years in the African wilderness unraveling the myseteries of elephants and people. Foreword by Alexandra Fuller. 230 p., 10 color photographs. 2006. Published by Houghton Mifflin Books.






From Booklist:
Mark and Delia Owens, who have studied lions in the Kalahari Desert (Cry of the Kalahari, 1984) and elephants in Zambia and Mozambique (Eye of the Elephant, 1992), now write more fully of their years in Zambia.

When the Owenses arrived at North Luangwa National Park in the mid-1980s, the park had been abandoned to poachers. Corrupt local officials, and even the scouts who were hired to protect the park, were making huge profits while decimating the park's elephants. The couple began to work with local villagers, hiring people to build roads and start fish farms and helping with health care and education. They also continued their study of the elephants, documenting how the social structure changed when numbers were very low and how the survivors rebuilt their lives.

The Owenses also saw strong parallels between human and elephant societies. This community-based approach to conservation, coupled with firsthand reporting of fieldwork in Africa, will find many avid readers.
-- Nancy Bent, Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


On Sunday, June 4 at 4pm, Border's Books in Danada Shopping Center will host a book signing for Secrets of the Savanna with Delia and Mark Owens.
Border's Books @ Danada Shopping Center: 101 Rice Lake Square, Wheaton, Illinoi s - 630.871.9595

Brookfield Zoo Library catalog: http://swan.sls.lib.il.us