In 1974, carrying little more than a change of clothes and a pair of binoculars, two young Americans, Mark and Delia Owens, caught a plane to Africa, bought a third-hand Land Rover, and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert. There they lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people, and no source of water for thousands of square miles. They survived without a tent for the first year, taking shelter in a clump of trees or in the truck. In this vast wilderness they met animals that had never seen humans before, animals as curious about the Owenses as the Owenses were about them. They would wake in the morning to find lions sleeping beside them, and leopards, giraffes, and brown hyenas were regular visitors to the camp. But the Kalahari isn't Eden, and Mark and Delia were continually confronted with danger–from thirst, fire, violent storms, and even from the animals they loved.
Their seven years in the Kalahari were not just an adventure. The authors' goal was to conserve the wildlife of one of Africa's last untouched wildernesses. From their meager beginnings they developed one of the most important conservation research projects ever conducted. They learned how Kalahari lions and brown hyenas survive droughts with little to eat and nothing to drink for months or years, how harsh conditions force lions to abandon their prides, and how brown hyenas, formerly thought to be solitary scavengers, help one another in raising young and even adopt each other's orphans. Because the wildlife of the central Kalahari had never been studied before, virtually every observation Mark and Delia made was an important scientific discovery.
The characters, animal and human, are as compelling as the story. They include Bergie, the Old Man of the Desert; Mox, the Owenses' man Friday; the hard-drinking hunters of Maun; Bones, the lion who survived a broken leg and makeshift surgery; Star the hyena; William the shrew; and the jackals Captain and Mate.
Mark and Delia Owens have written for Natural History, Nature, International Wildlife, and numerous scientific journals. Mark grew up on a farm in Ohio, graduated from Ohio State University, and did graduate work at the University of Georgia. Delia grew up in Thomasville, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia. They are now completing their Ph.D.'s at the University of California at Davis and are preparing to return to their camp in the Kalahari.