Ten lessons from a
Tiger
Environment Yukon and the
Yukon Science Institute present:
John Vaillant
Join John as he distills into images and words the
lessons humans have learned from tigers over two
million years of coevolution in the forests of Asia. Sunday, April 21, 2013
7:30pm
Yukon Arts Centre
FREE
John Vaillant’s latest book, The Tiger, took
three years to research and write and
included two extended trips to China and
the Russian Far East, the last stronghold of
the Siberian (aka Amur) tiger. In the course
of his investigations, Vaillant interviewed
biologists and hunters, poachers and wardens,
conservationists and indigenous Russians, all of
whom share their forest home with Amur tigers,
which can weigh up to 600 pounds.
Vaillant was surprised to find that, rather than
being seen as fearsome, alien beings, local Russians
saw their tigers as being not all that different from
them in terms of their basic needs and attitudes.
Like humans, tigers are apex predators with a strong
sense of entitlement to their territory, and Vaillant
discovered that these remarkable and intelligent
animals might have some things to teach us about diet,
resource management, and getting along with others.
Siberian Tiger photo:
iStockphoto/Dirk Freder