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The Great Soul of Siberia: In Search of the Elusive Siberian Tiger by Sooyong Park, Jamie Chang
curiousreader's review
5.0
The Great Soul of Siberia is a natural history book written by Sooyong Park, who has studied the Siberian tigers for more than twenty years. Having filmed numerous documentaries of the Siberian tigers, this book follows a few seasons of his research and field observations through a set group of tigers. This book has many things going for it. First, it’s written by someone with infinite direct and personal knowledge of these animals; their nature, their history and their relationships with humans - hunters, poachers, and villagers. Another is the fact that Sooyong Park is an amazing writer, writing with an unusually artistic narrative style - and at several points letting the tigers speak, or rather, giving the tigers a voice. Part of the book also focuses closely on Sooyong Park’s own experiences going through his field work, his reactions and deep felt fascination and respect for the tigers, as well as his plea for a change in the current state of the Ussuri Forest.
The book mainly follows one family of tigers living in the Ussuri Forest, through three generations. The mother - Bloody Mary, is the star of the first section of the book. She was a grown female tiger known for her wits and her caution; in the village she was known as ‘Bloody Mary’ because of her tendency to ‘soiling the earth with blood whenever she took down a deer or boar’. Sooyong Park spent half of the year in different parts of the forest on ‘stake-outs’, measuring paw prints, studying Bloody Mary and the other tigers active in the area through field work. The other half of the year he spent in underground bunkers, waiting for tigers to come to him - to be able to record and study them from a close range. Because tigers are extremely cautious of humans, many people in the area had never seen a live tiger. During the stake-outs, this seemed to have been largely the case as well. It was only through the time in the bunkers that true glimpses of the animal could happen, in their natural state.
I can’t imagine the experience of Sooyong Park as he spent almost six months in a tight square of a bunker with no company, barely anything for entertainment or distraction, in cold weather and in darkness, with eating the same thing every single day and in barely moving because of the cramped space he was in - but I can say even just reading it made me feel incredibly claustrophobic. It’s increasingly made clear to you as a reader, the length he and his fellow researchers and workers within this field go to in order to study, and ultimately, help with conservation of, Siberian tigers. The parts of the book that follow his experiences through becoming ‘part of nature’, basically to erase himself from nature so that tigers would dare come close enough to be caught on film, are just as captivating as are the parts focused on tigers.
Bloody Mary isn’t just a tiger Sooyong Park studies, she becomes a protagonist in the way he tells her story. She eventually gives birth to tiger cubs of her own, and in so doing - the generation continues on to follow White Snow, White Moon, and White Sky as Park has so beautifully named them. Until Bloody Mary’s death, it is apparent she has become a strong force in Park’s life as he spends more time with her - indirectly and directly - than almost anyone else for a period of time. The narrative shifts to the second generation after her death - White Sky the male tiger of the bunch grows to be a fully grown and strong tiger in his own right, White Moon and White Snow each have their own cubs eventually as well which we also follow in the last part of the book.
I suppose I could go on forever about the tigers themselves, but truly - Park writes of the tigers like individuals with their own stories, he imagines their thought processes through the evidence in front of him and what he knows of their past. He paints a vivid picture of their lives through a strong narrative, mixed with his own observations of a more objective point of view, and his larger thoughts on human’s relationship with nature and the changing reality of nature through human actions. As I started off by saying, because Park has spent such a long time thinking about and studying these tigers, he really knows what he’s talking about and this book provides endless fascination in that respect. But as I also pointed out, he is also a fantastic writer. Here though, there’s a possibility of differing opinions. Sooyong Park allows for a more spiritual narrative to seep into the book, both through the locals own myths and legends of the forest gods, the tigers, etc. but also through the way he himself views nature. His writing too is of a rather poetic style, to the point that this book almost has a fictional sense to it. He never goes completely off to fictional territory, though. While he sometimes actually writes as the tigers (these parts are written in cursive) the things he writes of the tigers thoughts, plans, and feelings are all based on things he has actually witnessed and basically serve as his own logical conclusions through his knowledge and experience. While these parts can’t be taken to be unquestionable truth as to what the tigers are thinking or feeling, it’s also not presented as such - it’s more like a suggested interpretation of foot prints, blood, behavior, remains of hunted animals, and more.
One very important theme in the book is what I said to be his plea for a change in the way the Ussuri Forest is now. With poachers and others making a business out of systematically killing tigers, the Siberian tigers have almost gone extinct and even after hard work from conservationists the population is only about 350 tigers in total. The effects of the limited and constantly hunted population is shown through tragedies both in the way of brutal and painful deaths of tigers (caught in traps or hurt by gunshots), inbreeding and cannibalism. At times it was this reality of what humans have done to the forest and to the Siberian tigers as a whole species and the way is was portrayed with such clarity, that had me crying. Many of the tigers we follow through the book are killed through this human intervention so to speak, and it is both heartbreaking and infuriating to read.
It’s likely going to be a question of whether you like your nonfiction academic and detached in tone or are up for a stronger emotional and artistic narrative, as to whether you get on with this book or not. But the information on Siberian tigers, the nature of the climate they live in and the experiences of someone who have studied them for years, and most importantly the devastating effects humans have had on the species and natural life as a whole, is absolutely worth reading this book for. I think you’ll be glad you did.
The book mainly follows one family of tigers living in the Ussuri Forest, through three generations. The mother - Bloody Mary, is the star of the first section of the book. She was a grown female tiger known for her wits and her caution; in the village she was known as ‘Bloody Mary’ because of her tendency to ‘soiling the earth with blood whenever she took down a deer or boar’. Sooyong Park spent half of the year in different parts of the forest on ‘stake-outs’, measuring paw prints, studying Bloody Mary and the other tigers active in the area through field work. The other half of the year he spent in underground bunkers, waiting for tigers to come to him - to be able to record and study them from a close range. Because tigers are extremely cautious of humans, many people in the area had never seen a live tiger. During the stake-outs, this seemed to have been largely the case as well. It was only through the time in the bunkers that true glimpses of the animal could happen, in their natural state.
I can’t imagine the experience of Sooyong Park as he spent almost six months in a tight square of a bunker with no company, barely anything for entertainment or distraction, in cold weather and in darkness, with eating the same thing every single day and in barely moving because of the cramped space he was in - but I can say even just reading it made me feel incredibly claustrophobic. It’s increasingly made clear to you as a reader, the length he and his fellow researchers and workers within this field go to in order to study, and ultimately, help with conservation of, Siberian tigers. The parts of the book that follow his experiences through becoming ‘part of nature’, basically to erase himself from nature so that tigers would dare come close enough to be caught on film, are just as captivating as are the parts focused on tigers.
Bloody Mary isn’t just a tiger Sooyong Park studies, she becomes a protagonist in the way he tells her story. She eventually gives birth to tiger cubs of her own, and in so doing - the generation continues on to follow White Snow, White Moon, and White Sky as Park has so beautifully named them. Until Bloody Mary’s death, it is apparent she has become a strong force in Park’s life as he spends more time with her - indirectly and directly - than almost anyone else for a period of time. The narrative shifts to the second generation after her death - White Sky the male tiger of the bunch grows to be a fully grown and strong tiger in his own right, White Moon and White Snow each have their own cubs eventually as well which we also follow in the last part of the book.
I suppose I could go on forever about the tigers themselves, but truly - Park writes of the tigers like individuals with their own stories, he imagines their thought processes through the evidence in front of him and what he knows of their past. He paints a vivid picture of their lives through a strong narrative, mixed with his own observations of a more objective point of view, and his larger thoughts on human’s relationship with nature and the changing reality of nature through human actions. As I started off by saying, because Park has spent such a long time thinking about and studying these tigers, he really knows what he’s talking about and this book provides endless fascination in that respect. But as I also pointed out, he is also a fantastic writer. Here though, there’s a possibility of differing opinions. Sooyong Park allows for a more spiritual narrative to seep into the book, both through the locals own myths and legends of the forest gods, the tigers, etc. but also through the way he himself views nature. His writing too is of a rather poetic style, to the point that this book almost has a fictional sense to it. He never goes completely off to fictional territory, though. While he sometimes actually writes as the tigers (these parts are written in cursive) the things he writes of the tigers thoughts, plans, and feelings are all based on things he has actually witnessed and basically serve as his own logical conclusions through his knowledge and experience. While these parts can’t be taken to be unquestionable truth as to what the tigers are thinking or feeling, it’s also not presented as such - it’s more like a suggested interpretation of foot prints, blood, behavior, remains of hunted animals, and more.
One very important theme in the book is what I said to be his plea for a change in the way the Ussuri Forest is now. With poachers and others making a business out of systematically killing tigers, the Siberian tigers have almost gone extinct and even after hard work from conservationists the population is only about 350 tigers in total. The effects of the limited and constantly hunted population is shown through tragedies both in the way of brutal and painful deaths of tigers (caught in traps or hurt by gunshots), inbreeding and cannibalism. At times it was this reality of what humans have done to the forest and to the Siberian tigers as a whole species and the way is was portrayed with such clarity, that had me crying. Many of the tigers we follow through the book are killed through this human intervention so to speak, and it is both heartbreaking and infuriating to read.
It’s likely going to be a question of whether you like your nonfiction academic and detached in tone or are up for a stronger emotional and artistic narrative, as to whether you get on with this book or not. But the information on Siberian tigers, the nature of the climate they live in and the experiences of someone who have studied them for years, and most importantly the devastating effects humans have had on the species and natural life as a whole, is absolutely worth reading this book for. I think you’ll be glad you did.
halfmanhalfbook's review
3.0
The true king of the jungle is the tiger; lions live out on the savannah. These magnificent creatures have carved a niche for themselves in the humid regions, but the largest and most elusive tiger shuns the warmth of the tropics, preferring icy cold wastelands. This is the Siberian Tiger. It is thought that there are only 350 or so remaining in the wild and so little is known about them and their habits that they are one of the most mysterious big cats.
As the spectre of climate change raises its ugly head, their pristine landscape becomes harder to eek a living from; coupled with the threat from poachers after them for medicines they are becoming rarer each day. For the past two decades, Sooyong Park has made it his life to track follow and study these shy creatures. He has built hides that offer a little shelter from the sub-zero temperatures that the region is famous for to be able to film and observe them. The local people see them as a spiritual element to their homeland and after watching them for this length of time he begins to understand why. This dedication to finding out about their lives results in a very close miss when they saw the camera protruding from the hide.
His dedication to following these magnificent felines is second to none, he is prepared to undertake quite challenging tasks by building elaborate hides to ensure that they are unaware of his presence. The information that he has collected on the tiger he has called Bloody Mary and her various litters of cubs has given us a greater understanding of the lives of these animals. His poignant prose shows just how passionate he is about these tigers and the lengths he is prepared to go, to observe them in the wild. Definitely a book to read on one the world’s most scarce big cats. 3.5 stars
As the spectre of climate change raises its ugly head, their pristine landscape becomes harder to eek a living from; coupled with the threat from poachers after them for medicines they are becoming rarer each day. For the past two decades, Sooyong Park has made it his life to track follow and study these shy creatures. He has built hides that offer a little shelter from the sub-zero temperatures that the region is famous for to be able to film and observe them. The local people see them as a spiritual element to their homeland and after watching them for this length of time he begins to understand why. This dedication to finding out about their lives results in a very close miss when they saw the camera protruding from the hide.
His dedication to following these magnificent felines is second to none, he is prepared to undertake quite challenging tasks by building elaborate hides to ensure that they are unaware of his presence. The information that he has collected on the tiger he has called Bloody Mary and her various litters of cubs has given us a greater understanding of the lives of these animals. His poignant prose shows just how passionate he is about these tigers and the lengths he is prepared to go, to observe them in the wild. Definitely a book to read on one the world’s most scarce big cats. 3.5 stars
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