Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival



In the 1990's, an Amur tiger in Far East Russia attacked and ate several villagers. At the time, the Russian government (with the help of several international agencies) had set up an agency known as "Inspection Tiger", which had the authority to both protect the tiger population (from poachers), and the village population (from the tigers). This book is the story of the attacks, and the subsequent investigation and tracking of the tiger by the local Inspection Tiger team.


This was, by far, one of the best books I've read in awhile. The author both tells the story of the attack and subsequent hunt, and gives you tons of interesting background information. For instance, the stories of how the villagers and hunters ended up in that part of Russia (including plenty of Russian history - which I've always been interested in); the explanations and reasons why a tiger would hunt a villager; why a tiger hunts the way it does (solitary, rather than in a pack); how the village was created; why the poachers were so interested in getting the tigers. So much interesting information interwoven with the narrative itself. Plus, most of all, it's about a tiger attack! How much cooler of a story can you find?


I recommend this one to anyone. Even if it's not something you'd normally read, I think you'll find it pretty interesting.

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