by Mark Owens and Delia Owens
Not for the squeamish. Very well-written and well told and beautifully narrated history of a man and wife who go to research wildlife in the Kalahari Desert in the mid 1970's. I heartily recommend this--action, humor, fun, and a whole lot of learning occurs when you go on this adventure.
But I will warn you--the graphically realistic description of the some of the animal behaviors got me down so much that I had to skip forward in the audio feed. I know animals fight each other for dominance, and I don't mind reminders of that. But do I have to listen to vivid descriptions of flaps of skin hanging down, dripping blood, howls of pain...?
Ick. And I'll also warn you that even though the foreward clearly stated that this was the story of their research, not the research results themselves, at times they seem to forget that. You'll learn more about the everyday life of brown hyenas and lions that you even expected to learn. And in my case, didn't really care to learn in quite so much detail.
And I also have to remind you that this is a real description of the real world. When lions stray over into the game reserve, bad things happen. And drought in the desert is a danger almost as immediate. So don't expect a happy experience. But not all that bad, either. Everyone doesn't die in the end.
Should I say that? Probably not. Sorry.
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