The Way of the Tiger (Worldlife Discovery Guides) [Paperback]

K. Ullas Karanth (Author)

Book Description

Series: Worldlife Discovery Guides | Publication Date: May 12, 2003

Voyageur Naturally is your one-stop resource for books about nature and country sports. We have one of the largest selections available for both adult and young adult and readers. Zoos and aquariums, natural history museums, gift shops, sporting book retailers, and other booksellers all appreciate the depth and quality of our series and our commitment to providing up-to-date information from leading naturalists and scientists.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two additions to the wealth of published information on big cats will appeal to very different audiences. Less than 50 percent text, Grace's book on lions only scratches the surface of the lion's evolution, adaptations, communication mechanisms, and day-to-day existence and survival challenges. The author, a Canadian zoologist and nature writer (The Nature of Monarch Butterflies), provides an additional chapter on mythology and symbolism, contact with humans, man-eaters, and conservation issues. The highlight of this book is the extensive high-quality photography provided by world-renowned wildlife photographer Wolfe, whose award-winning work has been featured in magazines such as National Geographic and Smithsonian. While it also has exceptional photos, Karanth's book places much more emphasis on content. Born and raised in India, where he has conducted research for over 20 years, Karanth is a conservation zoologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. That he loves his tigers and is passionate about their welfare is obvious. The organization of the text itself is fairly standard. Karanth starts out with conservation concerns and our fascination with big cats, then considers their evolution, ecology, and behavior and ends with recommended readings. He does not provide new information on tigers but instead reaffirms the research of conservationists George Schaller, John Seidensticker, and Fiona Sunquist. Readers who just can't have too many books about big cats will want them both, though Grace's book will appeal primarily to those who are looking for pictorial representations and brief descriptions. Small and mid-sized libraries will do well with just The Way of the Tiger. Edell M. Schaefer, Brookfield P.L., WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Tigers, the biggest of the big cats, can weigh as much as 300 pounds. These striped phantoms have both frightened and fascinated humans for millennia. Karanth, one of the world's foremost tiger specialists, has studied tigers in India since 1980. In this clearly written introduction to the life of the tiger in the wild, the author concentrates on the tigers of India (the most-studied population) but also discusses tigers from other regions. The author covers the evolution of tigers, how their role as predators affects their lifestyle and their place in the ecology, and methods of studying and counting tigers in the wild. One very interesting chapter discusses the solitary life of the adult tiger--although they live alone, tigers also inhabit a complex society of other tigers that communicate with each other through scent and vocalizations. A conservation message runs through the text, helping us to understand why tigers should be saved. Well illustrated with outstanding photographs, this excellent primer is the best introductory book now available. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Voyageur Press (May 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896580105
• ISBN-13: 978-0896580107
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but a shame about a lot of the photographs., June 22, 2002

By 

Chris Brunskill (Aughton, Lancs, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way of the Tiger: Natural History and Conservation of the Endangered Big Cat (Hardcover)

Some of my photographs of wild tigers were used to illustrate this book and while there are a few other fantastic pictures of wild tigers most of them(including the cover shot)are images of captive tigers photographed in natural enclosures in the USA. This form of wildlife photography undermines the work of people who spend days and even weeks searching for tigers in their natural habitat and also presents to the reader a rather distorted view of tigers as a species.

This, I think, is a tremendous shame as the book is exceptionally well written by the great tiger biologist Ullas Karanth and includes everything you will ever need to know about wild tigers, presented in a readable, informative way.

Aside from the "false" pictures, I would still encourage anyone with even the slightest interest in panthera tigris to buy this book. It will enhance your appreciation of this splendid cat, the most magnificent of all life on earth.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Intro to Tiger Conservation, August 28, 2004

By 

The Tiger (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way of the Tiger: Natural History and Conservation of the Endangered Big Cat (Hardcover)

Dr. Ullas Karanth is one of the most respected conservation biologists working to save the tiger from extinction in the wild. In this book, Dr. Karanth presents interesting information regarding the tiger's place in ancient culture, its biology, evolution and behavior. The book ends with the best discussion I have ever seen on the past and future of tiger conservation throughout the world, particularly in India and Nepal which contain most of the world's tigers in the wild.

The book is written with a view towards educating the INTELLIGENT layman about the main threats to tigers and the methods of tiger conservation. The text is not watered down for the benefit of those who merely wish to have a book that looks pretty; however, it is a pleasure to read, since Dr. Karanth's clarity of thought and writing are apparent throughout.

The author summarizes the research of other biologists (Drs. George Schaller, John Seidensticker, Mel Sunquist) and presents his own work on the monitoring of tigers and their prey. One learns how the densities of the tiger's ungulate prey species in a given area can be estimated. Since tiger numbers are positively correlated with the numbers of the cat's ungulate prey, this provides biologists with methods of estimating the number of tigers in a given area. For accurate counts, the author proposes the use of remote cameras to photograph tigers, which can be uniquely identified by their stripe markings. This "camera trapping" approach, as it is called, can be combined with powerful statistical methods to estimate the proportion of tigers in the population that were actually captured by the cameras, thus giving a total count of tigers in the sampled area.

Fascinating glimpses of tiger behavior are presented through the results of fieldwork in the Kanha and Nagarahole National Parks (India) and Chitwan National Park (Nepal) by the eminent scientists mentioned above. Much of what is known to science regarding tiger behavior and ecology is the result of these systematic studies. The methods and goals of modern field biology are carefully distinguished from the subjective impressions recorded by hunter-naturalists in the first half of the last century.

In an age when the media is choked with enormous amounts of misleading information, it is refreshing to find a book that gives sound scientific information in a clear and precise fashion. Dr. Karanth points out, for example, that while the much - publicized poaching of tigers for body parts is undoubtedly harmful, the poaching of the tiger's ungulate prey is likely to be equally, or more, disastrous. An especially attractive feature of the book is the pains the author takes to refute age-old and popular myths about tigers. For example, many people believe that white tigers are a separate race that need to be conserved (they are merely genetic mutants), or that keeping tigers in captivity by private citizens somehow contributes to tiger conservation (this is a colossal delusion).

As another reviewer notes, Dr. Karanth's criticism of the concept of 'sustainable use' of tiger habitats by humans is interesting. This fashionable concept, so dear to social activists who know little and care less about tiger conservation, cannot be applied to tiger range countries like India. This is because the number of potential consumers of products from tiger habitats is out of all proportion to the available resource base. Sacrificing, on the altar of 'sustainable use', the few protected areas where breeding tigresses still thrive can only spell doom for the species.

Dr. Karanth ends the book on an optimistic note: given the tiger's history of survival under extremely adverse conditions, there is a hope for this magnificent King of Cats if rational action, based on sound science, is applied to tiger conservation. The deep sense of hopelessness about the fate of wild tigers that one often comes across in the media is useless at best and counter-productive at worst. The first thing that concerned people should do if their efforts are not to be downright harmful to the survival prospects of tigers is to get informed before intervening. This book is a splendid attempt to provide such information.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biggest of all Cats, July 22, 2002

By 

Geoffrey C. Ward (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way of the Tiger: Natural History and Conservation of the Endangered Big Cat (Hardcover)

Of the making of coffee-table books about tigers there seems to be no end. Text traditionally hasn't mattered much; tigers are so alluring that most book buyers are content just to gaze at pictures of them.

The Way of the Tigers is different. Author K.Ullas Karanth is a Wildlife Conservation Society biologist and perhaps India's leading authority on tigers. Karanth explains what is- and is not true about these secretive big cats to which he has devoted the past 21 years. He outlines as well what will be asked of all of us if tigers are not to disappear from the wild.

The latest information is here, from tiger genetics to the little understood but indispensable role basic biology must play in the future if the success or failure of tiger management is to be assessed. The author has little patience with romantics who insist that tigers and a growing human population can harmoniously share the same shrinking forests. If tigers are to survive, he believes, the course is clear: "establishing protected reserves and buffering them with compatible land use; delinking tiger habitats from the forces of market-driven commerce; (and) enlisting sufficient public support for tigers both locally and globally to ensure these goals are met". Everyone, everywhere, he writes, can find a part to play in that effort.

Meanwhile he urges us to resist the pessimism that can be fatal to the cause. Things looked bad for the tiger in the 1970s, too, Karanth reminds us. But in India, at least, thanks to political will, private resolve, and the commitment of a handful of forest officials, the tiger's slide toward extinction was halted-even reversed for a time. "If wild tigers do not survive the twenty-first century", the author concludes, "it will largely be because we, the current crop of tiger conservationists, have lost this sense of purpose, clarity of thinking, and sense of hope. By failing to inspire the next generation....the present day doomsayers may be making self fulfilling prophesies".