Customer Reviews

The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness

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A second story of the Owens's exceptional experiences in the wildlife habitats of Africa.(The first book is Cry of the Kalahari.) The Eye of the Elephant is a warm and personal story of saving the endangered elephants of Zambia. The reader becomes as anxious for the survival of the Owens's as for the survival of the elephants, and the people of Africa. Eye opening to the problems encountered in doing something so nobel and obviously necessary.

Wildlife researchers and conservationists Delia and Mark Owens have spent much of their lives since 1974 in the African bush, first in the Kalahari Desert from which came their best seller "Cry of the Kalahari" and then in the North Luangwa Valley in Zambia, the setting of this 1992 book.

The Owens' passion leads them to risk their lives routinely. In searching for a suitable camp in North Luangwa they set out in an ancient truck with no radio and inadequate gear. After a grueling trek that would have sent sane mortals packing for home they separate so Mark can fly his Cessna to a site that "would make Cessna's insurance company shudder" while Delia makes the two-day trip alone with the old truck and a trailer over trackless hilly, bushy, gully-filled flood-plain terrain. Tracking animals they are constantly walking smack into a startled lion or buffalo or cornered elephant.

But the real danger comes from people. "The Eye of the Elephant," while filled with wildlife anecdotes and tidbits of information about elephants and lions, is really about the poaching war the Owens conducted on behalf of the besieged North Luangwa elephants.

The poachers are villagers, many armed with AK47s, backed by the local government and assisted by the corrupt and underequipped local game guards. The Owens' weapons are education, cottage industry projects financed by the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation and the Cessna.

The battle starts genially with children exclaiming over magazine pictures and their parents joining sewing circles and carpentry workshops. But it quickly escalates until Mark drives Delia from him with his obsession for highly dangerous and only modestly effective night flights, and the poachers organize an assassination squad to rid themselves of the Owens once and for all.

The book is organized in alternating first-person chapters between Delia and Mark. The tone is brutally honest, touching when one admits to mistakes which endanger the other, disturbing when their frank discussion of anti-poaching tactics veers from the politically correct. The Owens' care more for the animals and the landscape than the people. But since the people are there, their needs must be faced. Their singlemindedness will outrage some, but their strong personalities and sheer stamina will awe almost everyone.

York County Coast Star

You will immediately be drawn into their story! I was so involved reading this book that I missed my train station stop...you'll feel like you're there with them!

Mark and Delia Owens, trained in biology and zoology, and self-made wildlife conservationists, are expelled from Botswana for counting the animals too well. Poaching is big business and animal population data is the accusing evidence. But The Eye of the Elephant is no dry documentary. Instead, it is a movie-like personal account by a hardy, stubborn, enduring couple in love with each other and persistent in their goal to save wildlife somewhere in Africa. Expelled from the Kalahari, they choose the Luangwa Valley region of Zambia, to fight elephant poaching. Mark flies a bush plane and Delia drives a jeep through the brush. They both enjoy living very simply, in the middle of nature, unafraid of the wild animals. At the same time, their fearlessness, which goes way beyond foolhardiness, sees them confronting poachers who have automatic rifles, while they try to get the local park rangers equipped and willing to do their almost impossible job. The Owenses also run community programs to teach children and adults that ecotourism is better for them than poaching. I learn that poachers aren't all bad -- they may simply be starving and living off the only corrupt economy that their government, with the encouragement of well-meaning but thoughtless Western governments, provides. Money, corruption, deception, weapons -- there are many points in this true story where I wonder how the Owenses will survive. Not the dangers from animals, but as with the animals, the dangers from people. Wildlife conservation is very serious business; see it through The Eye of the Elephant.

I wish these authors would write more books about their adventures in Africa. Truly riveting page-turners!

BOOK CAME IN THE CONDITION THAT IT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE.
I HAVE NO CONCERNS WITH ORDERING AGAIN. THE BOOK WAS WELL WRAPPED AND CAME IN A TIMELY FASHION.

JOAN K.

As their firts book "Cry of the Kalahari" this one is a must for any nature lover out there and specially if you have travelled to Africa or are planning to do it some day.Absolutely loved it!!!

I love the way the Owens write. I enjoyed Cry of the Kalahari more, but this book is quite good as well. Breaks my heart that we are losing so much of the wildlife in Africa.

This is one of the most fascinating books that I have ever read.
The authors are enjoying a most spectacular life.
In this book they recount their adventures( all in first person )in the wildest & remotest wilderness in Africa while intensively studying African elephants. Their is an extremely strong emphasis on wildlife conservation, something to which this fascinating couple has devoted there entire adult lives.

The Eye of the Elephant is a wonderful, adventurous journey into the heart and soul of Africa seen through Mark and Delia's eyes. From the very first page you are caught up in their heroic quests to protect the animals they are there to observe. In spite of the unbelievable odds against them, they persevered and put the safety and security of the highly endangered animals FIRST. The elephants in the Luanga Valley are very fortunate to have had Mark and Delia watch over them and be their heroes. I have loved Africa and the African elephant my entire life and I am so grateful for these two selfless, dedicated people who have become the protectors of our most precious wildlife. This is one of my most treasured African stories.