Tiger is more than just a book listing the latest cat facts. Author Stephen Mills recounts his years observing and filming tigers in southeast Asia, coupled with scientific research from the 1960s to 2003.

In 11 chapters, Mills gives readers a crash course in tiger life: hunting, mating, social behaviour, human-eating tigers, threats, and what’s being done to support dwindling tiger populations. At the beginning of each chapter is a list of questions answered in the text. And if you want to see tigers yourself, Mills fills you in on the best places to go—better start saving your money!

The cover of Tiger certainly caught my attention and looked inviting to flip through. What I liked most about the book were the stunning photos throughout. The pictures were crisp and exploding with colours. I also liked having a list of tiger reserves and web sites to surf for more information.

I enjoyed reading Tiger and I learned tonnes—not only about tigers and their lifestyles, but also about their prey, poaching, conservation efforts, and even how and where to tiger watch in the wild. Did you know that tourists use trained elephants to help track down tigers (and they get an elephant ride at the same time)? Or that there are only about 5000 tigers left today, compared to 100,000 tigers just a century ago?

I would not change the book in any way, but I felt that it was just a bit too deep for general reading and would serve best as a research resource. Overall, I thought that Tiger was well written, informative, and the accompanying pictures were beautiful. I give the book a 9 out of 10 and would describe it as excellent.


(Originally published in the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of YES Mag.)