Thr Owenses are no longer allowed into the democratic country of Botswana. And I don't blame Botswana. I was offended at how they portrayed the Tswana (the dominant ethnic group of Botswana) as nothing but a threat to wildlife. Cry of the Kalahari gives the impression that the Tswana and the bushmen of the Kalahari have no right to use the resources of their land and should be dislocated elsewhere.

Their discription of the wildebeast fencing problem in inaccurate. They were not the first to report it as they claimed and in fact they never did a formal study of the fencing problem before they screamed out to the international community for help. Turns out fences help wildlife as well as hurt is by keeping cattle out of protected zones and thus free buffalo, wildebeasts and others from having to compete with them.

The Owenses do an excellent job describing wildlife and tell a captivating story but they take a step backwards in trying to conserve the animals they love. By giving the impression that all cattle, all people and all development is evil they propogate the myths of Africa that many more enlightened Botswana park service officials have been trying to dispell.


A must read if you love African wildlife   April 27, 2000
 30 out of 34 found this review helpful

Of the many books I've read about wildlife, this one sticks in my mind as one of the best, even though it's been several years since I first read it. Some books like George Schaller's "The Serengeti Lion" have more sceintific bent and therefore keep a 'professional distance' from the animals, while others such as those by Joy Adamson and Gareth Patterson become very personal with the animals and lose much of their objectivity. But Mark and Delia Owens find a happy medium between the two extremes, one where we learn a lot about the lions, brown hyenas and other animals they study in the Kalahari desert, but also come to know some of the individuals among these animals as friends.

We also get a taste of life in the Kalahari desert in the middle of Botswana, some of the hardships and life-threatening situations encountered by the Owenses. And we share the issues and concerns they tried to raise in the governments and landowners of the territories where they spent seven years living and studying animals.

At various times this book made me smile. It made me mad. It made me sad. It made me laugh. And it made me wish I could spend a few years of my life studying and living among wildlife as they did.


A Good Read but the Start of a Dangerous Trend   February 24, 2006
 22 out of 32 found this review helpful

This is not a new book; I read it years ago and enjoyed it. I would have given it 5 stars then. But when I re-read it last year, I realized it belongs alongside the Timothy Treadwell books/films and the Ian Hamilton (elephants) documentaries/books, about people endangering the very animals they love through relentlessly habituating them to people and pestering them to the point where Hamilton and the Owens', at least, are lucky to have escaped with a whole skin. This whole trend toward getting as close as possible to large dangerous animals is so detrimental to the animals themselves that it infuriates me.
The Owens' lions, used to people letting them roam around camp and sit down among them, and anthropomorphized with cute names like Muffin, were clearly going to get into trouble the first time they met other, less starry-eyed people in the Kalahari or in the villages and towns surrounding it. The Owens did them a real disservice.
That being said, and if you can ignore that aspect of it, this remains an interesting read - the camplife and the desert landscape are fascinating, and I believe that, at the time the authors carried out their project, the dangers of habituation, etc., were still not fully understood...


Reader Beware   July 24, 2004
 20 out of 29 found this review helpful

As a general read about African wildlife and people living in the wild researching the wildlife, this is a wonderful story. The Owens are good storytellers, have a fluency of style to their writing, and plenty of anecdotes to relate and entertain.

But it's pretty sickening when they brag that they set up camp in Botswana without the government's permission ("They'll find us there soon enough" -- although the Owens never do explain how they got around the government afterwards). They also openly admit they were unprepared for the hardships of life in wild Botswana, that they knowingly drove through monsoonal floods in an inadequate vehicle, ditto driving straightacross the salt pans (where their tracks will remain for hyndreds of years, if they don't hit a spot in the pan that swallows them up. So much for conservation.) The fact that the Owens lasted so long is due to good fortune triumphing over stupidity.

Deception Valley is now on the tourist itinerary. I've been to other parts of the Kalahari, and can testify that their descriptions are accurate. Read and enjoy, but you would do much better with Beverly Joubert, Pieter Kat, Cynthia Moss, and a host of other more responsible "wild" researchers who can also tell a good story.


Spectacular and IMPORTANT   March 10, 2000
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

The book is a true masterpiece. Moving, funny and heartbreaking. People need to read this to see what animals truly face in the wild, and how we make their lives even more difficult. Its an eye opening account of how we must care for and defend our wildlife. The accounts of devistation to animals just trying to get water to survive is probably the saddest account of animal cruelty I have ever read. Mark and Delia tell a story that MUST BE HEARD!