From the best-selling authors of Cry of the Kalahari, the dramatic story of Mark and Delia Owens's last years in Africa, fighting to save elephants, villages, and, in the end, themselves.

Crossing stick bridges over swollen rivers and battling swarms of tsetse flies, Mark and Delia Owens found their way into one of the most startlingly beautiful, wild places on earth, the northern Luangwa Valley in Zambia. As they were setting up camp to launch their lion research, gunfire echoed off the cliffs nearby. Gangs of ivory poachers were not only shooting the elephants but also virtually enslaving local villagers. Against unimaginable odds, Mark and Delia stopped the poaching by helping the villagers find other work, start small businesses, and improve their health care and education.

Living with wild creatures all around (lions sleeping at their toes, an orphan elephant dancing a jig in camp), Mark and Delia observed surprising similarities between the behaviors of humans and those of other animals. The bonding among young female animals and the competition among males reminded them of their own childhoods. As the elephant population slowly recovered from poaching, the Owenses saw parallels to human societies under stress. Older elephants, killed for their tusks, had taken with them the knowledge that had been passed down to the young for generations. The slaughter of the elders led to chaos — single mothers without older females to guide them, solitary orphans, rowdy gangs of young males — and a scientific mystery: how could there be so many babies and so few females old enough to be mothers? A young orphan they named Gift eventually provided the clue to the remarkable discovery that revealed the elephants' secret.

After the local ivory poachers were put out of business, they shifted their sights from the elephants to the Owenses. To save themselves, Mark and Delia took a lesson from the elephants, employing one of the last secrets of the savanna.

"This is a fascinating look at the interplay of social and wildlife upheavals in Africa in the early 1990s and a worthy follow-up to the authors'Cry of the Kalahari. They describe traveling to the 'remote and ruggedly beautiful' Luangwa Valley, in northeastern Zambia, to help save the North Luangwa National Park, where the elephant population had been decimated by poachers. The pair alternate writing chapters, with Mark presenting historical background to the region's human and animal problems and describing interactions with corrupt government security officers who eventually force the Owenses from Zambia. Although Mark's writing is vivid, Delia's chapters present the book's most moving scenes, featuring the day-to-day life of the animals and the social disruption caused by poaching: she sees teenage elephants, deprived of adult guidance because their parents were killed by poachers, living 'in an elephant version of Lord of the Flies.' She also lovingly showcases an orphaned elephant named Gift, whose journey from baby to mother represents hope for the region, realized with the current Zambian president's progress in fighting corruption and maintaining the Owenses' work. 8 pages of color photos not seen by PW; 2 maps." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

When Mark and Delia Owens settled in a Zambian wilderness, they

found the elephants and other wildlife decimated by poachers; the

local villagers, who depended on the wildlife, were driven to desperate

acts—including poaching themselves. To save both people and animals,

the Owenses started an innovative microlending program that lifted the

villagers out of poverty and allowed the wildlife populations to recover.

But the older elephants had been slaughtered for their tusks, taking with

them knowledge that had been passed along to the young for generations.

Left behind was social chaos—single moms, solitary orphans, rowdy

gangs of young males—and a scientific mystery: how could there be so

many babies and so few females old enough to be mothers? A young

orphan named Gift eventually provided the clue to the remarkable scientific

discovery that revealed the elephants' secret.

But the poachers and ivory smugglers shifted their sights from the

elephants to the Owenses, threatening their lives, raiding their camp, and

finally driving them out of the country. After two decades in Africa, Mark

and Delia returned to America to find social changes frighteningly similar

to what they had seen among the elephants of Zambia.

The authors spent 23 years in the Zambian wilderness where they started a unique program to lift the villagers out of poverty and allow the wildlife populations to recover from poaching. After more than two decades of work, they were driven out of the country by poachers and ivory smugglers.

'MARK and DELIA OWENS are the authors of Cry of the Kalahari, aninternational bestseller and winner of the Burroughs Medal, andThe Eye of the Elephant.MARK and DELIA OWENS are the authors of Cry of the Kalahari, aninternational bestseller and winner of the Burroughs Medal, andThe Eye of the Elephant.'