Exploring the Eastern Ice: A Journey to Protect the Giant Snowy Owl

AZB500: Excellent, found it absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

United Kingdom on Jul 29, 2023

Eduard Schwan: An excellent book, giving the reader a realistic view of the joys and gritty hard work of somebody who does the REAL work of being a conservationist, and having to work with others out in the woods... great insights into the sparse living locals on the East coast of Russia, and most of all, beautifully heartwarming insights into the lives of these reclusive owls. Important research findings at the end, without having to read the PhD thesis :-) Really enjoyed this.

United States on Jul 28, 2023

Matthew A. Bille: Blackiston’s fish owl is the world’s biggest and rarest owl. It has a wingspan approaching two meters and a fluffy, shaggy appearance Slaght likens to a juvenile bear with feathers glued on. It’s scattered in pockets of Russia, China, and Japan, huddling in sections of old-growth forest with large nesting trees and streams or rivers that don’t freeze over. The total population is perhaps 2,000. I've read nature all my life and had hardly heard of it before this superbly written book.
In Russia, where the species was only confirmed to nest in 1971, it clusters along the Pacific coast. That’s where Slaght, the son of diplomats and a good speaker of Russian, joined a Russian scientist to find the owls, document locations, and attach GPS tags to as many as possible.
This is a book about five years of hard work in unforgiving terrain where humans keep an eye out for the Amur tiger, the huge brown bear, and the armed and dangerous poacher. Slaght works with a rotating cast including Sergey Surmach of the Federal Scientific Center of the East Asian Terrestrial Biodiversity and Sergey Avedeuk of the Amur-Ussuri Center for Avian Diversity. Sometimes using snowmobiles and...

United States on Jan 16, 2021

Podiceps cristatus: Good coverage of the conservation work done concerning the Blakiston's Fishing Owl that perhaps many readers will know little to nothing about. We hear of the failures and tedium of the work as well as the successes. Equally good descriptive coverage of the bleak and harsh area of Eastern Russia where the work takes place mainly in difficult winter conditions, again an area that many readers will know little to nothing about. We are introduced to some of the other wildlife of the area and several human characters, and their idiosyncrasies, who work and/or live in the area. I doubt that I would ever want to visit this area, but it was good to read about it in the comfort of my home. Personally, I would have preferred more about the nature and wildlife of the area and a little less about the technical aspects of monitoring the owls, so as far as enjoyment goes, I give 4 stars rather than five.

United Kingdom on Dec 30, 2020

Christopher R. Siddle: The world's largest owl, Blakiston's Fish Owl, occurs year round in far eastern China, Korea, Japan and Russia. Although it appears to have a large breeding range, the owl has habitat requirements that limit the world population to a few thousand individuals. The owls which capture and eat fish require rivers and streams that have ice-free sections year round. They also require old growth trees containing cavities large enough to support the female's considerable size as she incubates 1-2 eggs. These habitat characteristics limit the owls to valleys lined with old growth riparian forest. Jonathan Slaght describes in east to read prose his years as an American graduate student trying to discover the fish owls' secrets in the wilderness of Primary Province, Russia, which borders the Sea of Japan. Birders, ornithologists, raptor enthusiasts, naturalists, and lovers of travel literature will enjoy this book. Free of technical language, The Owls of the Eastern Ice struck me as a particularly honest account of the daunting difficulties some biologists will face to learn about and due their best to preserve wilderness.

Canada on Nov 13, 2020

Adam B.: This book is totally different to any I have read. The subject appears at first sight to be the fish owls but they are only one of a host of rich and unforgettable characters that come to life as Jon Slaght stumbles his way through blizzards and awkward encounters on his quest for his (initialy) elusive feathered friends. Because of this and Slaght's writing, you don't even have to be interested in Russia or Fish owls to enjoy this book. So I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves great writing and immersing themselves in a place, people, and situation that they will otherwise never get the chance of learning from and enjoying. As well as entertaining just about everyone I can think of, I also have no doubt that it will inspire another generation to follow in Jon Slaght's footsteps and do everything they can to make a difference for some wild animal or place that they feel passionately about.

United Kingdom on Sep 28, 2020

Kenny S: Sometimes the most rewarding books are on a subject about which one knows almost nothing. Few of us will have heard of Primorye province, the furthest east in Russia where the port of Vladivostok is the capital. This is a harsh place where a sparse population makes its living from fishing, hunting, and logging. It is the home of the world's largest owl species , Blakiston's fish owl, a magnificent denizen of the forests and rivers of this distant land. Jonathan Slaght is an American ornithologist. For two decades he has been developing and promoting a conservation plan for this splendid creature.

A Russian winter must be among the least attractive times to carry out field research. The rivers are frozen over, snow envelops the land, the wind howls down from the arctic, bringing blizzards with it and it is perishingly cold. Unfortunately it you want to research fish owls, this is the time to carry out field studies. And of course with owls, much of the work has to be done at night. Vehicles break down or get stuck in the snow, any travel is fraught with difficulty and danger, and it is easy to get lost in the forest. When spring approaches and a thaw sets in, the ice begins...

United Kingdom on Aug 31, 2020

Meadow J. Kouffeld: Well written non-fiction story that is accessible to readers of all levels of interest and experience. Slaght’s writing lacks the pedantic jargon and personal bias that plagues and distracts the readers from valuable lessons in other wildlife conservation-oriented literature. Instead, he brings you along on his journey to document information on a little-known population of Blakiston’s fish owls in the Primorye region of eastern Russia near the Sea of Japan. All the while allowing the reader to make their own judgements and draw their own conclusions. The extreme field conditions described and the local people that live on the “edge” adds as much to the story as the field work and process of studying the world’s largest owl species. The book ends on a positive note and leaves the reader loving a part of the world that relatively few have seen.
In addition, this piece helps develop a picture of the challenges associated with conserving and managing wildlife species in the remote corners of the world where human interest and survival often competes directly with the persistence of a species or entire ecological communities. When I think of human wildlife conflicts in...

United States on Aug 06, 2020