Beltane New Lily Moon
Finished Tiger by John Valliant. It has so many great lines. Hope dies last. Russian proverb. The only other warm blooded animal that rivals humans in total numbers? Chickens. The native people tell me I’m now marked by the tiger, Yuri Trush. Trush is the dominant figure in the book who survived a direct assault by a tiger. The story of that tiger and its death is the strong lineament of the book.
Because the tiger is an apex predator in the eco-systems it inhabits, the health of the tiger population serves as a, perhaps the, key indicator of the health of that eco-system. If the tiger population is healthy, then the prey species are healthy as are the complex network of plants and other animals that depend on these two, predator and prey, for their survival. The sad news is that the apex apex predator, humans, has begun to push its competitors out of existence in the wild and that includes tigers.
A good book, well written and provocative.