A review by bobbo49
El llamado del Kalahari by Delia Owens, Mark Owens

5.0

I have now read all three of the Owens' memoirs of their time in Africa, and although I read this - their first adventure - last, I liked it the best. Each of the couple wrote distinct chapters of their experiences in the Kalahari, from the early days when they had no funding (other than their own meager savings) and were severely limited in their exploration and tracking, to the later years when they received grants and support and expanded their geographic and species study. Their intimate (indeed, face to face) daily interactions with hyenas, lions, various birds and reptiles, jackals and other animals gave them a perspective rarely experienced by science, let alone by a young couple working on their PhDs. Unfortunately, as other readers have noted, Mark Owens' gradually increasing anger over the years at the treatment of their beloved animals, and especially at the poachers and failure of the government of Botswana to provide sufficient protections, later resulted in a controversial conflict that led to the expulsion of the couple from Botswana and their apparently permanent departure from Africa. See https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/04/05/the-hunted