Owls of the Eastern Ice: The Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl

Jonathan C. Slaght

ago 2020 · Penguin UK

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The Times Nature Book of the Year 2020
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
A Finalist for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award

'Remarkable. If only every endangered species had a guardian angel as impassioned, courageous and pragmatic as Jonathan Slaght' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

'Gripping' Dave Goulson, author of A Sting in the Tale

Primorye, a remote forested region near to where Russia, China and North Korea meet in a tangle of barbed wire, is the only place where brown bears, tigers and leopards co-exist. It is also home to one of nature's rarest birds, the Blakiston's fish owl. A chance encounter with this huge, strange bird was to change wildlife researcher Jonathan C. Slaght's life beyond measure.

This is the story of Slaght's quest to safeguard the elusive owl from extinction. During months-long journeys covering thousands of miles, he has pursued it through its forbidding territory. He has spent time with the Russians who struggle on in the harsh conditions of the taiga forest. And he has observed how Russia's logging interests and evolving fortunes present new threats to the owl's survival. Preserving its habitats will secure the forest for future generations, both animal and human - but can this battle be won? Exhilarating and clear-sighted, Owls of the Eastern Ice is an impassioned reflection on our relationship with the natural world and on what it means to devote one's career to a single pursuit.

'Slaght makes the people, wildlife and landscape of the Russian Far East come alive. I haven't enjoyed a book on remote Russia as much as this since Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia'
Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia

'True epic. Powerful, passionate' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast

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Jonathan C. Slaght is a world expert on the Blakiston's fish owl. He is the Russia and Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society and has spent more than twenty years travelling and living in the Russian Far East. His work has featured in the New York Times, BBC World Service, Smithsonian and Audubon. Owls of the Eastern Ice is his first book.