Tigers Between Empires

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.

Review

Compelling, [a] well designed book... an impressive addition to recent literature on big cat conservation in spare, economical prose -- Jonathan Guthrie ― 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 -- James McConnachie ― 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 -- Adam Weymouth ― 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 -- Ruth Padel ― Literary Review

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 -- Caroline Sanderson ― 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

Vivid and captivating -- Caroline Eden ― Engelsberg Ideas

Gripping stuff. A nail-biting adventure that really matters -- Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild

A huge adventure at the frontiers of conservation, a whole hidden world, meticulously described, poised on the very edges of the wild and repeatedly made searingly alive by the majestic animals at its heart -- Adam Nicolson, author of Bird School

About the Author

Jonathan C. Slaght is an expert on endangered species of north Asia. He is the Regional Director of Temperate Asia for the Wildlife Conservation Society and has spent nearly thirty years travelling to and living in the region. His work has featured in The New York Times, BBC World Service, The Guardian, Smithsonian and Audubon. Owls of the Eastern Ice, his first book, was named The Times Nature Book of the Year in 2020.