The Tiger

The Siberian Tiger - a misnomer, and the Amur Tiger would better describe its location. Primarily the Primorye region of far eastern Russia, a vast area which shares a very long border with Chinese Manchuria and a short border with North Korea.

This book tells the story of one Amur Tiger - one who turns maneater, one with a vengeful attitude.

This story could be told in about 50 pages, if told in a constant stream, and sticking to the events in question - but that is not what this book does. This book takes the story and spreads it thinly throughout the whole 300 pages, keeping the reader on tenterhooks, waiting for the next step. Mixed through the story is an eclectic collection of sidelines, backfills and speculations related to the many people involved in this story, this area of Russia, its history, Russian policy, and of course, tigers.

I enjoyed the supplementary information - for me it was all relevant enough, and interesting enough. It contained loads of interesting information specific to tigers, but was a also a little broader, bringing in similarities and differences between tigers and other animals - wolves, the Amur leopard, brown bears. There was a lot of specialist research on Amur tigers explained. There was also a lot about the people involved - very detailed biographies of, in some cases, their entire lives. This included the victims of the tiger, their families, other relevant people living in the same towns and the tiger hunting team members. This all added to the greater context, but was perhaps the one aspect that was taken a but far for me. Having said all that, I know other readers found there was too little of the story and too much of the context.

The story of the Amur tiger, its dwindling numbers at the hands of poachers and hunters (ethnic and indigenous Russians) who see them as competition is a sad one, which it appears will not end well. The long, easily penetrated border with China, the recent deforestation by loggers, the logging roads that make access much easier, and the demand for all parts of the tiger by Chinese smugglers with plenty of cash all see the Amur tiger heading the same way as other tiger subspecies that have gone extinct in recent memory - the Balinese, Javan and Caspian. Add to this the South China tiger which has not had a reliable sighting since 1990 (according to the book) and is now likely to be gone too.

Vaillant describes Chinese Manchuria as historically being ‘an ocean of trees', and a protective belt for wild animals in the taiga over the border. Now it is devoid of trees -every inch of arable land being utilised, where ‘seeing a magpie is an event'. Meanwhile the Chinese have taken to breeding tigers purely to provide for the demand for Chinese medicine - dressed up as a rehabilitation park aiming to release them to the wild - which of course never happens.

I won't share the outline of the story - other reviewers have done this, but I would recommend letting the book roll the story out for you, the suspense as it is teased out makes it all worthwhile.

4 stars