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

by K. Ullas Karanth (Author)

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.

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 132 pages
• Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN) (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896585603
• ISBN-13: 978-0896585607
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9.7 x 3.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,901,764 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way of the Tiger, December 6, 2001

By	Richard Damania (Adelaide, Australia) - See all my reviews

Review of "The Way of the Tiger" by Ullas Karanth

This is a highly informative book that makes the science of tiger biology accessible to a wider audience. The book communicates complex ideas with exceptional clarity and simplicity. An added bonus is the profusion of wonderful photographs. The author addresses the biological, economic and political problems that haunt tigers. The methods and results of decades of scientific work are distilled and summarized in a manner that makes complex scientific issues seem remarkably obvious and simple.

For instance, scientific research tells us that tigers can survive only if there is sufficient prey available in the habitat. So what happens if there is a shortage of prey? Will tigers consume all the available prey? Karanth's work suggests not. Tigers have evolved in a way that ensures that they only consume the surplus prey. Hence they will never deplete their prey base through overconsumption. Karanth compares this is to a person living off the interest on their investment, rather than the capital. The observant reader might note the irony - humans often do live off their capital in unsustainable and ultimately destructive ways (e.g. depletion of soils, forests, fish stocks).

Having summarized the biological issues Karanth then turns to the key socio-economic threats to the tiger. Tiger populations are in decline, but because insufficient resources are allocated to accommodate their biological needs in the wild. The two main threats to the tiger are: habitat destruction and poaching of tigers and their prey. Tigers when killed provide income to poachers and their habitats when converted to agriculture, timber or mines generate money and jobs for some. As Asia's human population expands, the conflict between the insatiable desire to generate wealth and the ecological needs of the tiger intensifies.

To some commentators the answer lies in the notion of sustainable development - a concept which has been elevated to the status of a self-evident doctrine. The book convincingly argues that in practice, sustainable development in India has failed to deliver on its conservation promises.

To others the key to the tiger's survival lies in "..making live tigers worth more than dead ones.." Karanth supports this notion as far as it goes, but notes its limitations.

Karanth provides the most compelling and commonsense case for conservation, that I have encountered. Less than 5 per cent of the land mass in the tiger range countries is reserved for conservation. Sacrificing these areas to the alter of economic development will not deliver solutions that have eluded mankind on the remaining 95% of the land.

The author of this book is measured in his criticisms of the prevailing situation. As a final observation, this reviewer would like to note yet another reason why the tiger remains high on the list of endangered species. Conservation is an expensive business - both in terms of funds to pay for protection and in terms of foregone opportunities (e.g. timber and minerals left unexploited in the tiger habitats). These costs fall disproportionately on the poor in often the poorest of countries. On the other hand, tigers are a global public good. People in the developed world want tigers to exist (economists call this the "preservation value"). Yet, the developed world contributes only a fraction of the costs of sustaining and protecting tigers. The developed world thus "free-rides" on the conservation efforts in the tiger range countries. Since tigers and their habitats confer global benefits, economic reasoning calls for a more substantial contribution from the global community. In short concerned people from all over the world have a moral and economic responsibility to contribute to efforts to protect tigers.

9 of 10 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

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	Tiger Man (Bangalore, India) - See all my reviews

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.