Play Book Tag discussion

The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness, turned out to be less about watching Elephants, and more about change management. When Delia and Mark Owens went to Zambia, they were hoping to study elephants in the wild, but most of the them had been killed off by illegal poaching. Government efforts weren't working. When the agents caught men poaching elephants, they didn't arrest them, they sat and enjoyed a meal with them.

The Owens were prepared for this. They focused their time and funds on trying to stop the poaching. I was impressed by the wide range of methods they used to try to change the attitudes and behavior of the people in the local villages, as well as government officials. They worked hard to convince them that the elephants were a more valuable resource alive than dead, because of the wildlife tourism. The villagers needed the money and food they got from the elephant poaching, so the couple helped them to find or create jobs or small businesses. They used many different types of influence tactics, and worked at all levels (from individuals, groups, leaders, country, etc.) And of course, they spent a lot of time with the kids, because this is a long term cultural issue, not a short term problem.

This book was written in the early 1990's so I want to find out what happened since then. A quick check - elephants in Africa were recently put back on the endangered list.

This sounds interesting to me, but I agree that I would like to see something more recent about elephants and management.

I'm constantly surprised the the 1990's are not recent.

Booknblues wrote: "This sounds interesting to me, but I agree that I would like to see something more recent about elephants and management.

I'm constantly surprised the the 1990's are not recent."

I know. All this happened 30 years ago. 1992 was a very vivid year for me. 2012 on the other hand was not memorable at all. And now it's almost 2022.

When I looked for updated information, I found out more about their personal lives than about the elephants. Delia and Mark are now divorced. Mark's son was never mentioned in this 1992 book, but in 1995, he was a suspect in the murder of a poacher in Zambia. This story came out again when Delia's debut fiction novel (she was 70) became a huge bestseller.

BTW, of all the books I've read about elephants, I think I learned the most (about their behavior, emotions, grief, etc.) in a fictional novel by Jodi Picoult: Leaving Time

Delia Owens went on to write Where the Crawdads Sing. She is the sole author. I do not know anything about her husband otherthan what was cited above. Amazing, isn't it, that she and her husband went to Africa to study wildlife and she ended up writing about an American girl? peace, janz

Peacejanz wrote: "Delia Owens went on to write Where the Crawdads Sing. She is the sole author. I do not know anything about her husband otherthan what was cited above. Amazing, isn't it, that she and her husband we..."

Yes it was, and it made sense that her character was a biologist. I found myself wondering if Kya's marriage (in Crawdads) reflected things about the author's marriage. In this book, they often worked independently and I think they had two different camps.