Biographical Sketch of Mark and
Delia Owens |
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CONTENTS |
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Honors and Awards Print
Articles Book Publications
Papers
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Delia and Mark
Owens near Marula Puku Research camp in North Luangwa National Park
of Zambia.
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Delia Owens, Ph.D., B.S., and Mark Owens M.Ed., B.S., have
conducted research and conservation projects on endangered species in
Africa for 23 years. They met in the early 70s as graduate students at the
University of Georgia, and soon discovered that they shared the dream of
saving part of Africa's vanishing wilderness. Shortly after they married,
they auctioned everything they owned, and with $6,000, one-way tickets and
back-packs, they headed to "the Dark Continent." For seven years they
lived in tents in Botswana's Central Kalahari Desert. There they studied
black-maned lions and elusive brown hyenas in an area so remote that the
animals had never before seen humans. Cry of the Kalahari, their
best-selling book, is a gripping and vivid account of their research and
adventures in "the Great Thirst." (See The
Kalahari Years)
From 1986 to 1997 the Owenses developed the North Luangwa Conservation
Project (NLCP) in Zambia, a multidimensional approach to wildlife
conservation and resource development. When Mark and Delia arrived in
North Luangwa, more than 100,000 elephants and several thousand black
rhinos had already been slaughtered by poachers in the Luangwa Valley;
each year 1,000 elephants were still being killed in the "North Park"
alone. By 1997, elephant poaching was controlled in North Luangwa. The Eye of the Elephant, the second
book by Mark and Delia, published in 1992 by Houghton Mifflin, details
their efforts to reclaim the North Luangwa wilderness from commercial
ivory and meat poachers. (See North Luangwa
Conservation Project)
The Owenses returned to the United States in 1997 to work for
conservation in the northwestern United States and to write up their
research data from their years of fieldwork in Africa. (See Selkirk Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Recovery
Project)
The Owenses are respected scientists in their field and have published
in such journals as Nature, Journal of Mammalogy, Animal
Behaviour, Natural History, and the African Journal of
Ecology. They also serve as roving editors for International
Wildlife magazine, in which a number of their articles have
appeared.
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The Owenses stand
before their first "home" in North Luangwa, a traditional mud,
wattle and daub Bemba Hut.
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Life, People, Sports Illustrated, and Reader's
Digest have all featured articles about Mark and Delia. The Owenses
have made repeat appearances on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," the "Merv
Griffin Show," "AM Canada," "Late Night America," "Good Morning America,"
and "People Magazine for TV." "African Odyssey," a National
Geographic TV special about Mark and Delia, is still being shown
periodically on PBS. In 1996, ABC News' "Turning Point" aired an hour-long
documentary on them and their North Luangwa Conservation Project in
Zambia.
In addition, the Owenses have lectured professionally at the San Diego
Zoo, the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Natural History
in New York, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the San Francisco Zoological
Society, and at many other organizations in a variety of American and
Canadian cities.
1994 Ridder of the Golden Ark presented by H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of
the Netherlands. 1993 University of California "Outstanding Alumnus"
Award 1981 Rolex Award for Enterprise for Kalahari Research
Project
*Newspaper Articles
*Thomasville Courier - September 15, 1977
*Chattanooga News Free Press - September 24, 1978
Wildlife - April 1979 African Wildlife - May-June
1979 Fairlady (South Africa) - August 1, 1979
Das Tier (German) - January 1980 Natural History (New
York Museum of Natural History) - February 1980 African Wildlife
- November-December 1980
Das Tier (German) - January 1982 International
Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation) - November-December 1982
Wildlife - June 1983 International Wildlife (National
Wildlife Federation) - September-October 1983
Nature - May 1984 *Chattanooga News Free Press, Mike Pare -
October 7, 1984 LIFE Magazine - November 1984 *Atlanta
Journal Constitution - November 28, 1984 (no copy on file)
*New York Times - March 31, 1985 (no copy on file) People
Magazine, MaryAnne Vollers - April 8, 1985 Reader's Digest -
June 1985
International Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation) -
March-April 1986
U.S. News & World Report - January 26, 1987 Owl -
Summer 1987
*San Francisco Examiner, Michael Dougan - January 23, 1988 People
Magazine, MaryAnne Vollers - October 10, 1988
International Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation) -
July-August 1989 Owens Foundation Brochure - Fall 1989 Fernbank
Program - lecture - November 1, 1989 *Atlanta Journal Constitution, Don
O'Briant - October 13, 1989
The Colleague - April-May 1990 Fernbank Quarterly (Fernbank
Science Center/Atlanta)- May 1990 Sports Illustrated, MaryAnne
Vollers - December 17, 1990
*Smoke Signal - Stone Mountain, Georgia - March 1991 Reader's
Digest - August 1991 Zoomin' (San Diego Zoo)- Fall
1991 *The World Paper - December 1991
*Smoke Signal - Stone Mountain, Georgia - February 1992 *African
Wildlife Newsletter Update - May 1992 Kirkus Reviews - New York
- August 1, 1992 *Tallahassee Florida Democrat - August 21,
1992 *Atlanta Journal Constitution - August 30,
1992 International Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation) -
September-October 1992 Reader's Digest - October
1992 *Thomasville Times Enterprise - October 2, 1992 *Chicago
Tribune by Pete Gorner - October 7, 1992 *Democrat - Steve McQueen -
October 9, 1992 *State - Tallahassee, Florida - October 12,
1992 *Boston Globe - Vicki Crooke - Review - October 13,
1992 Florida State University Review - Kevin Punsky - October
14, 1992 *Flambeau, Misti Davis - October 15, 1992 *Atlanta Journal
Constitution - Peach Buzz Column - October 15, 1992 Florida State
Distinguished Lecture Series - October 15, 1992 Flambeau,
Andie Foster - October 16, 1992 *Tallahassee Democrat - October 16,
1992 *San Diego Tribune, Bruce Bigelow - October 16,
1992 *Tallahassee Democrat - October 18, 1992 *Saraota Florida
Herald-Tribune - October 18, 1992 *Dallas Morning News, Bill Marvel -
October 19, 1992 *Covington, Kentucky Post Review, Maureen Conlan -
October 19, 1992 *Houston Chronicle, Bruce Bigelow - October 19, 1992
*Sacramento Bee (*this column was syndicated: to 90 US papers) by Paul
Craig - October 21, 1992 *Cincinnati Enquirer, Ann Hicks (Review) -
October 22, 1992 *Dayton Daily News, Jonathan Brinkman - October 25,
1992 *Chattanooga News Free Press - October 25, 1992 *Covington,
Kentucky - October 26, 1992 *Cincinnati, Ohio Post, Maureen Conlan -
October 26, 1992 *Cleveland Plain Dealer, Becky Freligh - October 31,
1992 Boston Museum of Science - October-November
1992 Ndeke Magazine (Zambian Airways Inflight Magazine)-
November 1992 Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Wendy Wasman
- November 1992 *Virginia, The Free Lance-Star by Paul Sullivan -
November 7, 1992 *Winston-Salem Journal, Frank Tursi - November 7,
1992 *Rock Hill, South Carolina, The Herald, Bill Peschel - November 8,
1992 *Chicago Sun Times, Marcia Schnedler - November 8, 1992 *The
Herald - Rock Hill, S.C., Paul Craig - November 10, 1992 *Victoria
Times-Colonist - November 12, 1992 *The Calgary Sunday Sun, Thane
Burnett - November 15, 1992 Calgary Zoological Society Program -
November 17, 1992 *Boston Globe, Vicki Croke - November 28,
1992 *Santa Ana, California - Register, Everett Potter - November 29,
1992 *Contra Costa Times, Carol Fowler - November 29, 1992 *African
Wildlife Newsletter Update - Review J. Adams - November-December
1992 Wildlife Activist - December 1992 *Focus On Women -
Victoria, Canada - December 1992 *The Times, Argus & Herald -
Detroit, Michigan - December 3, 1992 *The Houston Chronicle - December
6, 1992 *The Fulton County Expositor - December 8, 1992 *The Canton
Enterprise - December 8, 1992 *Delta Atlas/Fulton County Expositor -
December 9, 1992 *The Delta Atlas - December 15, 1992 *The York
County (SC) Observer - December 12, 1992 *The Toledo Blade, Steve
Pollick - December 15, 1992
Atlanta Magazine, Susan Walker - Review - January
1993 *Chicago Tribune, Peter Gorner - January 21, 1993 Audubon
Magazine - Review EOE - January-February 1993 People
Magazine, Dick Burgheim - February 1, 1993 *The Enterprise, Davis,
California, Elisabeth Sherwin - February 7, 1993 *The Blade - Toledo,
Ohio - February 28, 1993 (no copy on file) Natural History (New
York Museum of Natural History), Joseph L. Sax - March 1993 Audubon
Magazine - May-June 1993 Georgia Alumni Record (University
of Georgia) - Winter 1993 *The San Diego Daily Breeze, Bill Beebe -
October 28, 1993
The Humane Society of the U.S. - Spring 1994 Bell
Helicopter News - U.S. - June 1, 1994
TV Guide - ABC Turning Point - March 30, 1996 Best Friends
Magazine - US - June 1996 Das Tier Magazine (Germany) -
December 1996 Animal Behaviour (UK) 51, 535-551 "Social
dominance and reproductive patterns in brown
hyenas, Hyaena brunnea, of the central
Kalahari desert" - 1996
International Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation)- May-June
1997 Swara Magazine (East African Wildlife Society) - May-June
1997 Getaway Magazine - RSA - July 1997
*The Idaho Spokesman-Review, Julie Titone - June 21, 1999 *Seattle
Post-Ingelligencer - June 22, 1999 *The Columbian/Northern Lights -
June 23, 1999 *Eugene Register-Guard - June 28, 1999
Sandpoint Magazine (Sandpoint, Idaho) - June 2000
Cry of the Kalahari, Houghton Mifflin Publishers
1984 Hardbound ISBN
0-395-32214-6 Paperback ISBN 0-395-64780-0
The Eye of the Elephant, Houghton Mifflin Publishers
1992 Hardbound ISBN
0-395-42381-3 Paperback ISBN 0-395-68090-5
Survivor's Song (Eye of the Elephant - English/European
release title), Harper Collins Hardbound ISBN
0-00-255196-9
Secrets of the Savanna, Houghton Mifflin Publishers
2006 Hardbound ISBN 10:
0-395-89310-0 Hardbound ISBN 13:
978-0-395-893104
Early age reproduction in female savanna elephants (Loxodonta
africana) after severe poaching African Journal of
Ecology Volume 47, Issue 2, Date: June 2009,
Pages: 214-222 M. J. Owens, D.
Owens
African Journal of Ecology © 2009
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Download Early age... (198KB, Adobe
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Feeding ecology and its influence on social organization in
Brown hyenas (Hyaena brunnea, Thunberg) of the Central Kalahari
Desert M. J. Owens, D.
Owens African
Journal of Ecology Volume 16, Issue 2, 1978.
Pages 113-135 1978 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
African Journal of Ecology © 2009
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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