Tigers in the Snow

by Peter Matthiessen

Book Overview

The author of "The Snow Leopard" and "Bone by Bone" takes readers into the world of the Siberian tiger to convey powerfully what a loss to our collective imagination the disappearance of these great... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865475962
• ISBN13: 9780865475960
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Tigers in the Snow Book Review

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

Tigers in the snow

I WROTE THIS REVIEW BECAUSE I LIKE BIG CATS, BUT I CANNOT GET EVEN ONE VIDEO OR BOOK OF THESE ANIMALS. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME.GOD BLESS YOU !GOLDEN

Portrait of a metaphor

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.

Brings this Historical Region to Life Again

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.