The Tiger

Vancouver-based American author and journalist John Vaillant’s non-fiction book The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (2010) tells the true story of a man-eating tiger who claimed a number of victims in Russia’s far-eastern Primorye region in the late 1990s. Alongside the story of the tiger and its victims, Vaillant relates the recent history of the region, the scientific knowledge and traditional superstitions relating to the Siberian tiger, and the environmental decline which threatens the species’ continued existence. Vaillant, whose journalism has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and National Geographic, is best-known for his 2005 non-fiction book The Golden Spruce, which won the Canadian Governor General’s Award.

An experienced woodsman and hunter, Vladimir Markov, is found dead outside his shack. It is clear from the physical evidence that he has been attacked by a tiger, which surprises local investigators. The Amur tigers native to the Primorye region rarely attack humans unless provoked, something Markov was far too experienced to have done. The state’s wildlife organization is brought in to investigate, drawing on the latest scientific observation of Amur tigers as well as age-old folk superstitions about the animal.

Vaillant introduces us to the Primorye region: a vast, sparsely populated area in the east of Russia, about the size of Washington state. The human population is desperately poor, badly hit by the fall of communism, but the region is extremely rich in biodiversity. Four separate bioregions meet in the Primorye. As well as the “taiga,” the dense Siberian forest, Primorye also has Mongolian steppe-lands, subtropical jungles, and the boreal forests of the Arctic circle. Attempting a comprehensive description of Primorye’s botanical life, scientists named the region the “Transbaikalian Province of the Circumboreal Region.” Its longest river, the Amur, is the longest undammed river in the world.



The Primorye’s abundant wildlife includes the dhole, a menacing canid related to the wolf, which is known to prey on humans. However, the king of the ecologically unique boreal jungle is the Amur tiger. The only surviving tiger subspecies evolved to survive in Arctic conditions, the Amur can also survive in the jungle and just about any climate in between. The Amur tiger is larger than the more familiar tropical tiger. Its skull is much heavier: the head of a fully-grown male can be as wide as the chest and shoulders of a human being. Amur tigers grow to a length of nine feet, standing more than three feet tall at the shoulder. Their fangs are as long as an adult man’s forefinger and their paws as broad as dinner plates. Unsurprisingly, they are the apex predator in the Primorye. There are few wolves in the region because Amur tigers happily predate on them and bears, too. Vaillant describes the Amur tiger as “what you get when you pair the agility and appetites of a cat with the mass of an industrial refrigerator.”

Having introduced the region and its tigers, Vaillant focuses on the dead Markov. As the wildlife agency investigates the circumstances of his death, they conclude that in fact, Markov had unwittingly provoked the tiger by stealing meat from a boar the tiger had killed. The investigators find alarming evidence that the tiger strategically hunted Markov down in revenge.

After Markov’s funeral, Andrei Pochepnya, a friend of the deceased hunter, sets off alone into the taiga. Days pass with no sign of Andrei, so a search party is organized. They find nothing but blood-soaked clothing, a watch, a crucifix, and just enough human remains to fit into a shirt pocket.



Vaillant tells parts of his story from the tiger’s point of view, slowly building a complex portrait of the animal. Having succeeded in killing Markov by staking out his cabin—and enjoyed the comfort of Markov’s mattress—the tiger waits for its next victim on his mattress. Vaillant imagines the beast’s thinking: “Building on his success with cabin stakeouts and with mattresses, he combined the two here in a way that also warmed him in the process.”

The remainder of the book follows Yuri Trush, the head of the region’s tiger-preservation agency who is now given the task of finding and killing the tiger. He draws on his professional expertise and local folklore to track the tiger down. In the book’s climactic scene, Trush confronts and kills the tiger, putting his own life in danger: “It is still not clear whether it was a symptom of shock or an example of extraordinary sangfroid, but Trush’s first impulse after standing and taking an inventory of himself was to get it on film.”

The Tiger explores man’s relationship with the natural world, as well as charting the terrible ecological losses caused by human activity. Drawing on animal-chase narratives like Moby-Dick and Jaws, Vaillant’s book also creates a compelling portrait of a charismatic and powerful animal.