Recommended reading

John Vaillant's 2010 masterpiece, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

from my Amazon review (January 2011):

~ This book hits that unusual mark of being essential reading for BOTH the layperson interested in tigers, AND the most knowledgeable tiger scientist/conservationist. It is an absolutely gripping read that does a beautiful job of recounting not just a suspenseful central narrative, but of weaving the narrative with fascinating cultural, historical, economic, geographic strands situating the Amur tiger deeply in place in the Russian Far East. I have read other books that are sympathetic to the tiger, but Vaillant goes farther, making a fascinating attempt to understand the internal thought and emotive processes of this highly intelligent, hard-living animal.

The Tiger brilliantly explains the end-game that this species is facing not just in the Russian Far East, but everywhere it still roams in Asia. The future of Homo sapiens is intimately tied up with the tiger's fate. Please read this important book, and then fight like hell to ensure the survival of a species that is not just beautiful, iconic, and charismatic, but critical to our own survival. The most valuable thing most readers can do to help these animals is to donate funds to the organizations working most effectively for their protection: Panthera, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Phoenix Fund. Without overwhelming, global support for systematic efforts on the ground in the next five to ten years, many of us will witness the extinction of the tiger in the wild in our lifetimes. That will be a tragedy and a human failure beyond measuring.

An additional suggestion for those feeling at a loss as to how to help tigers in the Russian Far East: the author (John Vaillant) points out that the tiger's habitat, the stunning forests of Primorye, are being logged to the last tree to supply cheap consumer goods to big-box stores in every American neighborhood. Think before buying that solid oak toilet seat for $20.00. Its true price is much higher, in terms of tiger lives, and all the other species, flora and fauna, in this magnificent part of the world. There will be no going back.

George Schaller on The Tiger: "An absolutely superb book. There have been many tiger books, but none which so deeply try to probe the mind of tigers and the mind and habits of humans living in the same forest."