"Tigers Between Empires" by Jonathan Slaght

It’s a familiar story: the animals we’ve all known since we were children, the lions, tigers, and elephants, all disappearing from the wilds due to loss of habitat, hunters, or a changing environment.

So how gratifying is it to learn that in one part of the world, a wintry forest area between Russia and China, that the Siberian tiger is actually making a comeback?

That’s what Jonathan Slaght writes about in Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China.

The proper reference for the Siberian cat is Amur tiger for animals that live in the Amur River basin, which forms part of the border between Russia and China. 

By whatever name, they are an endangered species. In the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred of these great cats remained. And make no mistake, the Siberian tiger is a great cat. It weighs in at almost 700 pounds, and can reach 11 feet in length. A tiger can leap up to 15 feet in the air and drag or carry prey weighing 1,000 pounds. It can devour 60 pounds of meat at one sitting--but seldom does 

A meal can take many days to find in the wild, especially with changing political conditions. When the Soviet Union fell, catastrophe arrived, with poaching and logging taking a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species.

Slaght, who now travels the globe for the Wildlife Conservation Society, charts the incredible story of a 35-year program that brought Russian and American scientists together to help save the tigers. 

He shows how this coalition laid the foundations of new tiger research across Asia, transforming public opinion around tigers from something to be feared and hunted to creatures we must protect.

Today, tigers occupy only 7 percent of the land they did 100 years ago, disappearing from the wild across Bali to Iran. In the ongoing global crisis of species destruction, Slaght brings us hope for the future. Slaght gives credit to the people who worked on the project over the years, Americans like Dale Miquelle and John Goodrich along with several Russian scientists.

Slaght’s account of how the tiger project progressed reveals that conservation is not for the weak of heart. Tagging a wild tiger so that it can be tracked for research purposes is no simple matter. Is there enough tranquilizer in the dart to do the job? What about the aim? What about confronting an enraged tiger caught in a trap?

There’s also endless waiting for researchers to find their tigers. Dealing with shortages in the field was made even worse with the collapse of the Society Union,  a time when the research project was just coming together.

Slaght cited another possible success story is underway with the relocation of Amur tigers to Kazakhstan. Tigers are being reintroduced into the Balkhash Nature Reserve, an environment that closely mirrors where tigers roamed many years ago. 

Slaght’s first book, Owls of the Eastern Ice, also documents a conservation story. But the difference between owl and tiger is one of territory. While the owl secures only a small part of the forest, one lone Siberian tiger ranges in an area that might encompass more than 500 square miles.

While powerful hunters, tigers are at the mercy of the environment. With the recent outbreak of African Swine Fever striking down Russia’s population of wild boar, a favorite tiger dish, the great cats have had to turn to villages for food. When tigers confront an angry public, it never turns out well for the tiger.

Yet Slaght believes progress is being made. If not for the animals' sake, for our own. International collaboration is essential to conservation, he noted.