Tigers Between Empires

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Brought to you by Penguin.

The remarkable conservation story of one of the world’s most iconic animals

Deep in the snowy forests of Northeast Asia roams the majestic and revered Amur tigers, more popularly known as ‘The Siberian Tiger’. But in the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred of these graceful animals remained in their home of the Amur River basin. As the Soviet Union fell, catastrophe arrived, with poaching and logging taking a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species.
Taking us on a journey through remote frozen landscapes, globally renowned conservationist Jonathan Slaght charts the incredible story of how Russian scientists and American conservationists came together to save these magnificent, solitary creatures. He retraces their steps to show how this dedicated, fearless coalition laid the foundations of new tiger research across Asia, transforming public opinion around tigers from something to be feared and hunted, to creatures we must protect.
Today, tigers occupy 7% of the lands they did 100 years ago, disappearing in the wild from Bali to Iran. In the ongoing global crisis of species destruction, Slaght shows us that the revival of the Amur tiger can bring us hope for the future: a model for how to live alongside, and revive, the natural world.

© Jonathan C. Slaght 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Compelling, [a] well designed book... an impressive addition to recent literature on big cat conservation in spare, economical prose
Financial Times
You sense the silences and threats of the deep forest. You taste the pungently Siberian flavour of the desperately remote towns... encounters are soaked in adrenaline... this book does offer that rarest and happiest of things in the world of nature conservation: a success story
The Times
Slaght’s evocative book tells the remarkable story of a three decade-long scientific collaboration
Telegraph Greatest Books of 2025
Inspiring, compelling... bristling with detail and feeling... we become as wedded to the fortunes of the cats – proud Olga, brave Severina, orphaned Zolushka – as we do to the people who have dragged them back from the brink, one individual at a time... a timely reminder of what collaboration across borders can achieve
New Scientist
Fascinating and important... Slaght vividly evokes this astonishing landscape... a beautiful demonstration of how conservation efforts depend on local communities and political will
Literary Review
A heart-in-your-mouth saga that tells the stories—terrifying, riveting and sad—of the adventurer scientists who saved the disappearing Amur tiger. Slaght gives us an inspiring account of a wilderness where brown bears fight tigers and the too-brief geopolitical thaw that reshaped the lives of both man and tiger
A Scientific American Favourite Book 2025
The remarkable and enthralling story of the majestic Amur tiger... this is a story that gives us hope in the possibility of living alongside, reviving and protecting the natural world
Bookseller
A captivating account of the Siberian Tiger Project, a multi-decade collaborative effort among American and Russian scientists to study and protect Siberian tigers... Slaght sketches an empathetic portrait of these intrepid researchers as well as the imperiled creatures they studied... [Slaght] brings their stories to life on the page with vivid detail and suspense
Publisher's Weekly
The ambitious book is... enlivened by the insights of Slaght, whose compassion and curiosity make his book suspenseful and urgent
Minnesota Star Tribune Best Book 2025
Vivid and captivating
Engelsberg Ideas

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