Tigers in the Snow [Hardcover]

Peter Matthiessen (Author), Maurice Hornocker (Photographer, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

No more than a few thousand tigers now survive in pockets of Asia, a continent they once roamed far and wide. The largest of them, the Siberian tiger, is today almost entirely confined to the little-populated Russian Far East. Nearly extirpated before World War 11, Panthera tigris altaica made a comeback in subsequent decades. When poaching and habitat depredation following the implosion of the Soviet Union once again threatened extinction, a group of American wildlife biologists led by Maurice Hornocker joined with their Russian counterparts in founding the Siberian Tiger Project to study and protect this besieged race.

Peter Matthiessen journeyed to the Russian Far Fast and other remaining tiger territory to witness for himself the species' present condition and to understand its possible fates. Bringing to his subject his deep knowledge and the instinct for the natural world that have made classics of his previous books, he allows us to participate in the battle for the future of one of the earth's most awesome creatures. Along the way, he tells the story of the species' origin and evolution, evoking as well its crucial, often totemic role in the cultures and mythologies of the peoples who came in contact with it. He has made of the tiger's dilemma not a manifesto but a drama - underscoredby Hornocker's stirring photographs - that conveys powerfully what a loss to our collective imagination the disappearance of these great cats would be.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Indigenous to Asia, and once widely distributed across the continent, the tiger is yet another of the world's creatures to come perilously close to extinction in the last century. Where a hundred years ago the population of Panthera tigris and its cousins stood at more than 100,000, a 1995 census put the total at less than 5,000. And, writes Peter Matthiessen, a longtime student and champion of endangered wildlife, "most biologists and conservationists ... would set that number even lower."

Working with the noted wildlife biologist and photographer Maurice Hornocker, Matthiessen recounts his travels into the Russian Far East and Manchuria in search of one of the rarest of the big cats, Panthera tigris altaica, the Siberian tiger. Once shielded, and not by design, by Communist policies that restricted travel in and development of its wilderness habitat, the Siberian tiger is increasingly threatened throughout much of its range as the dense old-growth forests of the Pacific seaboard fall to Japanese logging companies; at the same time, the tiger is still hunted for parts used by Chinese apothecaries (drinking the essence of a tiger is thought to bring renewed sexual vigor to aging men). Matthiessen, whose text brims with a righteous rage on the tiger's behalf, is able to report a few success stories, as Russian, Chinese, and American biologists work to conserve habitat in the wild country memorialized by V.K. Arseniev's Dersu the Trapper, a memoir that informs Matthiessen's own book. But his book is also full of tragedy, of terrible stories that help press a case for why the Siberian tiger should be protected everywhere in its domain.

Matching a thoughtful, well-crafted text with remarkable photographs of tigers in the wild, this is a book that, with luck, will help spur renewed interest in making the world safe for wildlife of all kinds. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Are tigers doomed? Between 4,600 to 7,700 remain in the wild, but their numbers are dwindling. Matthiessen's eloquent report on the fate of tigers--chiefly in Siberia but also in Indonesia, India, Thailand and China--explains what conservationists and governments are doing to save the tigers; compact reportage and natural history share space with poetic meditation on the significance and majesty of the big cats. To the graceful prose and attentive descriptions that mark his bestselling nonfiction (The Snow Leopard; In the Spirit of Crazy Horse; etc.) and his fiction (Bone by Bone, etc.), Matthiessen's new work adds a sense of urgency: the result is a marvelously effective brief in favor of tigers. Matthiessen begins and ends by recounting his trips to Russia (in 1992 and 1996) in which he sought the Siberian tiger, the largest and most majestic of surviving tiger subspecies. He spoke to Russian villagers, learned about poachers and antipoaching efforts, and watched the rare beasts roam the taiga, take down elk and give birth. The Sikhote-Alin wildlife reserve, an expanse of forested mountains and beaches as big as Yosemite, represents the great hope of Siberian tigers; there, Matthiessen met biologist Hornocker, codirector of the Siberian Tiger Project. The rest of the book surveys tigers elsewhere in Asia. Iranian tigers are already extinct; Thailand, fortunately, maintains a "system of protected areas, well staffed and funded, where most of its tigers are already sheltered." As Matthiessen learns from filmmaker and "tiger partisan" Belinda Wright, India's efforts to save its tigers have foundered, in part because they fail to solicit, or to reward, indigenous people's assistance; worse yet, Indian authorities can't bring themselves to catch and prosecute poachers, even when Wright goes undercover to nab them. Hornocker--who pioneered radiotelemetry, the practice of tracking big cats via radio collars, on which the Siberian project depends--contributes the volume's 60 spectacular black and white photographs. Some capture the scientists and villagers as they follow tiger prints over thick snow or dig themselves out of a rugged winter. In other shots, the tigers--black and white themselves--pose amid birches, romp across tundra, sniff the air as for prey or lean protectively over a tranquil cub. Invigorated by Matthiessen's potent prose, these photos celebrate the majesty, and highlight the plight, of one of nature's most magnificent beasts. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 185 pages
• Publisher: North Point Press; 1st edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865475768
• ISBN-13: 978-0865475762
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings this Historical Region to Life Again, February 16, 2000

By 

Dwight D. Schmidt (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tigers in the Snow (Hardcover)

This book recounts the story of endangered Siberian Tigers in a grand sweep including their history and the stories of modern scientists, Russian and otherwise, who study them and seek to save them. It's a superb relaxation book, but one also with a strong message. Excellent photography and interspersed historical illustrations add to the books enjoyment. The endpapers map the startlingly short time (1800-2000) in which these Tigers have come to face extinction. Melodic names of Russian scientists, Nikolaev, Shetinin and Yudokov, and regions from Turkmenistan to Kyrgystan found me wondering where I had read of this grand territory before-- in Vladimir Nabokov's grand novel The Gift, of course, whose biologist hero would have known Matthiessen's Tiger subspecies "altaica" from the Altai Range. As if contrapuntal to Matthiessen's book, Nabokov left it uncertain whether his hero (recounted once again this year in a great conservation-sensitive book, Nabokov's Blues) died at the hands of gunfire or the claws of some wild beast. Matthiessen brings this wonderful and little known part of the world to life once again. One can only hope that his book has some sway on the Tigers' ability to find (in Nabokov's words from The Gift once again) "Equality Before the Law in the Animal Kingdom" in its long struggle to survive in spite of man.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of a metaphor, May 26, 2000

By 

Ron Franscell, Author of 'Sourtoe Cocktail Club' - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tigers in the Snow (Hardcover)

The tiger remains one of nature's most provocative metaphors for power, independence, grace and spirit, but a world consumed with symbols is hardly noticing as the animal itself sinks slowly toward oblivion.

Now one of the most intuitive nature writers of our recently past century, Peter Matthiessen lends his poet's voice to the desperate effort to save the tiger in "Tigers in the Snow." He makes an eloquent case for enlightened coexistence between humans and tigers, starting in a remote corner of Siberia where the species has staked its last best hope for survival. Their impending extinction, he argues, would not only damage the world's ecology, but also our collective imagination.

"Tigers in the Snow" is more analytical and less lyrical (and far less introspective) than "The Snow Leopard." Mattheissen's fans will find "Tigers" comparable to his 1992 book, "African Silences," a sobering account of the catastrophic depredation of the African landscape and its wildlife, particularly elephants. Indeed, as with many ecological calamities-in-the-making, the causes of the Asian tiger's decline -- hunting, reduction of food supply, man's encroachment and government policies (or lack of them) -- tragically resembles the majestic African elephant's deterioration.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tigers in the Snow Book Review, January 1, 2002

By 

Brian Ambuel (Brookfield, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tigers in the Snow (Hardcover)

The book that I chose to read was titled Tigers in the Snow, written by Peter Matthiessen. Tigers in the Snow was published by North Point Press, in 2000. It is 174 pages long. In this book the author takes us with him on a journey through Asia trying to save the tigers. He writes about his experiences in the Siberian Tiger Project, founded in 1989. Peter Matthiessen writes to show people how important tigers are in the world and how close we are to losing them. This book is very factual and detailed it gave me the true picture of the tiger's cultural history and how close we are to losing them forever.
This book is written from both an ecological and biological stance. Ecologically, he explains how tigers interact with other animals. They interact with the elk and other prey such as wild pig by hunting them. They indirectly interact with humans by hunting the same prey as human hunters do. They also interact with humans because human industries destroy the tiger's and its prey's habitat. Biologically, the book proves that tigers live a very strenuous life. At all times they are in danger of being hilled by poachers. Tiger's pray is very scarce making it hard for them to survive, especially ones with cubs. Their pray is so scarce because hunters over hunt tiger's main food sources which include large animals such as elk and wild pig. The number of human attacks by tigers increase along with the lack of prey. This is because the tiger will only attack a human if they are starving. Despite the tigers size and strength it fails in about 90% of its hunts.
This book discusses many aspects of the tiger. It addressed where they live, how many are left, and their hunting patterns. Tigers were once plentiful throughout Siberia, China, Korea, and South East Asia. Now, the 3,000 remaining wild tigers are mostly confined to small parks and reserves throughout the tiger world. Tigers are poached relentlessly for their fur and body parts which are often used for Asian folk medicines. Male tigers need large amounts of wooded territory. Several female tiger's territories often overlap a male's territory. Tigers have very unique hunting patterns. They use their excellent sight and hearing to hunt animals instead of their sense of smell like most carnivores do. Often times, they hide the carcass of their prey and return multiple times to eat. In order to convince governments that better tiger protection plans were needed scientists needed to extensively research the tiger. To do so the author, as a part of the Siberian Tiger Project, captured and radio collared the tigers. This way they could monitor movement and behavior without human influence. "From monitoring theses tigers-some for 7 years now- we know how much food they require, what they eat, how they react to human activities, and what makes for good tiger habitat," Matthiessen states in this book. He tells about his experiences studying the tigers. He traveled all around Asia to different reserves researching the tigers and their activities.
I think that this book has taught me a lot and that I can relate what I've learned to what we have discussed in class. It taught me about the tiger's niche in the environment, and we have studied niches of different organisms in class. I could also incorporate population studies into this book. The book often times discussed the population of tigers in certain areas. I have a better understanding of the tiger's population dilemma by using my knowledge of immigration, emigration, mortality, and natality. Overall, I thought this book was very educational and worth reading if you are at all interested in tigers or the effort being made to save them.
What I learned about the tiger can be applied to other animals facing loss of habitat and extinction. The book has taught me how much human's industry and over hunting can affect an animal's survival, more than any other natural factor. It has taught me that it is up to us to save the tiger from extinction and that is true for all endangered animals....