Probably the most difficult part of the book for us was trying to keep the Russian names and individuals straight. We didn't let Gary vote, but let him join us in the discussions. We thoroughly enjoyed the book and for all three categories of interest level, readability, and likeliness to read another story by this author, we all gave it our maximum rating of 5. We were also joined by Gary Crandall, and although he had not read the book, he indicated if he had read it, he would have really enjoyed it. We felt the tangents did not detract from the book.įor our review we had Barry Blakeborough, Irv Berlin, John Sill, and me. While in some books the many tangents might have gotten tedious, in this book, the side tours work well and help add to our background. East Russia in the Province of Primorye is the last stronghold for Amur tigers in the world and there is a lot of pressure on the tigers from the illegal wildlife trade with China to the south. Along with providing an exciting narrative of the tiger attacks and pursue of the offending tiger, Vaillant takes us on numerous side trips. Despite its large size, tiger attacks on people in Far East Russian were relatively uncommon and much lower than tiger attacks on people in India or lion attacks in portions of Africa. The book also discusses the biology, ecology and human interactions with tigers and other large carnivores.

While the breakup of Communism and the Soviet Union helped end the Cold War, the people of East Russia were almost a forgotten people who were left to eke out survival in a harsh but beautiful environment.

There was a lot of information on the history of the Russian Far East, and especially the impact of Perestroika on the region.

The American black bear is probably the 3rd largest, with polar bears being number 1, and brown bears being 2nd largest.Īlong with a great adventure story, there was a lot of interesting background information. The Amur tiger is the largest cat in the world and depending which records you accept for animals weighing over 800 lbs, either the 3rd or 4th largest carnivore in the world. This of course is the book about the attack of an Amur (Siberian) tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica) on men in Russian Far East, and attempts to subdue the offending tiger. We had a nice review of the book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant.

The tiger john vaillant review