Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture

This is without doubt one of the best books on animal behavior I have ever read. What Thomas does that others do not (and often cannot) is three-fold:First, using her long experience with animals both domestic and wild, she INTERPRETS their behavior from her observations. Most of us do that, but scientists in general do not. They cannot because such interpretations, unless established scientifically, would be labeled "anthropomorphic," and prove dangerous to their careers. You and I interpret the behavior of our animals, but most of us have only a small fraction of the experience that Elizabeth Thomas has. She has spent decades in the wild, especially in Africa, studying animals and their interactions with humans.This interaction between humans and their way of seeing the world and that of cats and their way of seeing the world--our differing "cultures" as Thomas rightly uses the term--is the second thing she does so very well. Her stories about how the Ju/wasi people, for example, treat lions and how the lions treat them--with mutual respect--and how that differs from the way non-indigenous people treat lions is just fascinating to read. She describes the Ju/wasi talking to a couple of lions, telling them firmly and politely that a certain fallen wildebeest was theirs and that the lions should leave. After listening, the lions left. (p.118) And how the Ju/wasi behaved if by chance they should come upon a lion in the wild: the person would take an oblique angle away from the lion and walk with purpose, keeping the lion in sight but not staring. Thomas discovered that a lion meeting people sometimes would do the same!The third thing that Thomas does extraordinary well is to use her novelist's sense of description and IMAGINE how the cat is feeling. She writes beautifully with love and understanding, but without mawkish intent or any phony sentimentality. Here's an example:"Even people with very inconspicuous disabilities are quickly zeroed in on by cats...the entering tigers stopped...to stare...at someone they had spotted deep in the [amphitheater] crowd. Following their gaze I finally found what they had noticed immediately: a child with Down's syndrome sitting quietly and (to me) inconspicuously amid his family." (p. 123)If you limp by a caged carnivore, a wolf or a leopard, say, your limping will excite the animal because an injured or disabled animal is its best prey. As Thomas explains, carnivores want to obtain their meals with as little risk of injury to themselves as possible because any injury in the wild can prove fatal.Here's Thomas on the roaring of lions: "At about ten o'clock that night a lioness suddenly appeared between the two camps and began to roar. The loudness of lions cannot be described or imagined but must be experienced. My body was so filled with the sound that I couldn't think or breathe, and in the brief silences between the roars my ears rang." (p. 135)She goes on to speculate later in the book that li

Disregard the negative reviews or comments previously written on this book.This is one of the best natural history behavior books ever written and the best on cats behavior, both wild and domestic.

This is a book that anyone interested in natural history and/or animal behavior ought to read. The author has an almost poetic command of the English language combined with a thorough understanding of the methodologies of the social and natural sciences. Her (radical?) contention that animals, particularly cats, have culture - a series of learned and transmissible behaviors - is demonstrated to the point where it should at least be taken seriously by the scientific community, and perhaps to the point of being as proven as possible outside the established boundaries of scientific methodology. Her observations of the interactions of the Serengeti populations over time, both lions and people, have certainly convinced me that animals have culture. And at the same time they've broken my heart just a little bit more at what we humans are doing to one another and to the other species that share this world.I have read this book at least four times, cover to cover, and smiled and wept a little and been further enlightened during each read. I've bought it as a gift for several friends and have two or three copies of my own at home. A reviewer said of this work: "Wonderful book. Formidable woman.", and that pretty well sums it up - her voice is quiet, but I believe you will find it resonating with you for a very long time indeed.In its own small way, "The Tribe of Tiger" is every bit as much of a classic as "Origin of the Species" or "Silent Spring" (or "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"!).

Fun to read and full of facts and anecdotal evidence about various species of felines.

I was never a cat lover. I was definitely a dog person, and I (like all former dog owners) think my dog Jingles was the best dog in the whole wide world. Now we have a cat named Maya. All the myths I ever had about cats were turned on on their ear. In a similar fashion, The Tribe of Tiger gives a powerful insight into these animals without being overly sweet. Very often books of this type become unreadable to non-cat owners who get sick from the sugary references to cats at their cutest. Instead, Thomas examines all manner of cats, from the plight of the African lions to the triumph of the house cat. I wasn't aware that cats had a social organization at all, but unlike dogs (who have a distinct order in the pack), cats treat one cat as leader, with the others all equal in a kind of spoked-wheel formation. When you find out just how important it is that a cat meet another cat's gaze (and the trials of a blind cat who was unable to do so), you will have a new respect for cats, and this book.