Three years ago I read Jonathan Slaght’s book, “Owl’s of the Eastern Ice’, a book that takes the reader into the inhospitable wilds of Russia’s Primorye Krai, the province immediately north of the Korean Peninsula, its multiple mountain ranges pushing up against the Sea of Japan. With a latitude the same as Oregon and Washington, its winters are far more severe. The book guides you through the mountains and snow, along with the researchers and conservationists, both Russian and American, studying the Blakiston’s Fish Owl, the world’s largest owl, and as the name implies, one that hunts fish in the region’s streams

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I’ve just finished Slaght’s second book, “Tigers Between Empires: the Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China”. Set in the same rugged country, Slaght takes the reader along on a 30 year effort of study and conservation of the Amur Tiger, previously called the Siberian, a region they don’t exist in. You go with them tracking, setting snares next to scent trees, around kills the tigers are still feeding on, and narrow game trails the tigers prowl, as the researchers learn and refine their capture techniques along the way, sometimes at great danger to themselves as they attempt to capture one of the 200-500 pound cats. No one had ever done this before. Snaring, anesthetizing, weighing, measuring, assessing their health and attaching radio transmitter collars so the can track them across their ranges. Continue reading →