All is quiet in this dormant, frozen world. Slender birches, whiter than the snow, seem to emit a light of their own, but it is like the coat of an animal in winter: cold to the touch and for itself alone. All around, the black trunks of oak, pine, and poplar soar into the dark above the scrub and deadfall, and their branches form a tattered canopy overhead. He is on foot and on his own save for a single dog, which runs ahead, eager to be heading home at last. Its wan light scatters shadows on the snow below, only obscuring further the forest that this man negotiates now as much by feel as by sight. HANGING IN THE TREES, AS IF CAUGHT THERE, IS A SICKLE OF A MOON. If the tiger hadn't been shot, there would be no story." "This was a highly unusual circumstance, completely driven by human behavior. "In living memory, there was no record of an incident like this, of a tiger hunting a human being," he says. In writing the book, Vaillant interviewed people of all ages from families who had lived in the Russian Far East for generations. Vaillant says the tiger's response was "logical" and "understandable," but in the case of the revenge it exacted on Markov, it was anything but typical. Markov certainly learned that the hard way. "What's so fascinating to me about that region is that there are human beings and tigers hunting for the same prey in the same territory - and they don't have conflicts." But if you make the mistake of attacking a tiger, you will regret it, he says. "The tiger is just trying to be a tiger," Vaillant says. Vaillant's retelling is a life-and-death, moment-by-moment chase - and at times, it can be hard to remember whether you're rooting for the tiger or the humans. Vaillant cites a famous tiger biologist who, when asked how high a tiger can jump, responded: "As high as it needs to."Ĭossacks pose with a tiger they hunted in Russia's Far East, circa 1885. These majestic tigers can jump as far as 25 feet - vertically, they can jump over a basketball hoop. "The Amur tiger can weigh over 500 pounds and can be more than 10 feet long nose to tail."
"Imagine a creature that has the agility and appetite of the cat and the mass of an industrial refrigerator," Vaillant tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer.
The tigers that populate this region are commonly referred to as Siberian tigers, but they are more accurately known as the Amur tiger. It was very nearly a perfect habitat for the tigers - until humans showed up. There, in Russia's Far East, subarctic animals - such as caribou and wolves - mingle with tigers and other species of the subtropics. The most bio-diverse region in all of Russia lies on a chunk of land sandwiched between China and the Pacific Ocean. John Vaillant's The Tiger is part natural history, part Russian history and part thriller it tells a gripping and gory story of what it's like to stalk - and be stalked by - the largest species of cat still walking the Earth. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
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