Tigers between empires : the improbable return of great cats to the forests of Russia and China / Jonathan C. Slaght.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Slaght, Jonathan C., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Siberian tiger--Russia (Federation)--Russian Far East.

Siberian tiger.

Siberian tiger--Conservation--Russia (Federation)--Russian Far East.

Siberian tiger--Conservation--China.

Siberian tiger--China.

Miquelle, Dale G--Travel--Russia (Federation)--Russian Far East.

Miquelle, Dale G.

Physical Description:

xxii, 484 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : ilustrations (color), maps ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Improbable return of great cats to the forests of Russia and China

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025.

Summary:

"The thrilling saga of the great Amur tiger and the scientists who risked their lives to save it. The forests of northeast Asia are home to a marvelous range of animals--fish owls and brown bears, musk deer and moose, wolves and raccoon dogs, leopards and tigers. But by the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred tigers stepped quietly through the snow of the Amur River basin. Soon, the Soviet Union fell, bringing catastrophe; without the careful oversight of a central authority, poaching and logging took a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species. Just as these changes arrived, scientists came together to found the Siberian Tiger Project. Led by Dale Miquelle, a moose researcher, and Zhenya Smirnov, a mouse biologist, the team captured and released more than 114 tigers over three decades. They witnessed mating rituals and fights, hunting and feeding, the ceding and taking of territory, the creation of families. Within these pages, characters--both feline and human--come fully alive as we travel with them through the quiet and changing forests of Amur. We travel across time, too, as the fate of the species has been shaped by the history and politics of empires--such as the Qing dynasty's Willow Palisade, which once slowed human settlement, or the later introduction of roads through Russian reserves. The Siberian Tiger Project became the longest-running tiger research initiative; its work continues to guide conservationists today. Jonathan C. Slaght's Tigers Between Empires is the thrilling saga of the great Amur tiger and the scientists who came together, across the world, to save it."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part One: 1989-1993. The green fire

The cold and ice of Terney

A moose biologist in tiger country

Dale and Viktor track a tiger

A tigress named Olga

Thinking like a tiger

In a forest of ancient pines

Dale, Igor, and the Tunsha bear

Olga and her mother by the sea

Maurice gets his tiger

Natasha of the Ivanga

The slow burn of a capture season

Mariya Ivanovna and her cubs

Tiny tracks in the snow

In Russia, tigers fly coach

Part Two: 1994-2005. The Kolumbe man-eater

Olga versus the metal kite

New arrivals from Wyoming

Katya the fearless

Murder, snakes, and the Meare Heath bow

Counting all the tigers in the east

Hope for the tigers of Dongbei

A secret known only in the forest

Olga, the oldest tiger in the world

Part Three: 2010-2024. Cracks in collaboration

The horse hunter of Orlovka

The tragedy of Galina

Kristina and the bear hunter

The orphan from Changbai

Zolushka in captivity

A strange convoy to Birobidzhan

The last capture

Tiger conservation across borders.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [439]-465) and index.

ISBN:

9780374610982

0374610983

OCLC:

1478324066

Publisher Number:

90103252057