What were you catching them for?

You brought such improved practicalities to the countries you worked in, Jack.
Penny for your thoughts , in that last shot of you, with that wry smile.

Jack, any pix of the blow gun and maybe an explanation of why you went that route?

Imagine trying to sleep at night knowing this was what you where hoping was awaiting you when you ran your trap line in the morning .Even the mountain men trappers in the US where only dealing with some mean grizzly bear and some Native Americans that wanted to scalp them .I would think your sense where always on high alert .while running this type of trap line .

Thanks Jack. Were the drugs the same as used here and just as accessible ? Were your US drug permits honored there or did you have to jump through those hoops again over there ?

I know those Siberian Tigers can go over 700 pounds, a very, very big lion is 500

Gulo those Amur Leopards are gorgeous

I have that book but have not read it yet.

Have you read Dersu - The Trapper? If not I highly recommend it

I would say, what a job! But, it’s not a job. It’s an adventure! Totally alsome!!! Thanks for the pictures and info.

Thanks Jack. Were the drugs the same as used here and just as accessible ? Were your US drug permits honored there or did you have to jump through those hoops again over there ?

Jack that's is the book about the poacher who wounded that tiger and it stalked him, waited for him then killed and ate him right?

Those experiences had to be incrediblde! Gulo, have you written a book yet detailing your experiences here and abroad?

Living legend.

Thanks Donner, but I'm thinking that's a bit overstated. I'm just a trapper.

Ringneck - Yes. I finally put a few of the experiences together in book form. It's called Wild Life: The Evolution and Misadventures of a Naturalist. If you're interested, it's available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Trafford Press, and elsewhere. If you want it autographed, I still have a few copies on hand I can send.

The animals were fitted with radio-transmitters and released. We were gathering basic ecological information (food habits, home range, population density, etc.).



The learning went both ways, Sharon. I gave the Russians a little taste of western technology. They paid me back by teaching me how to be a naturalist. They could read sign like no others. They knew each and every plant, mammal, bird, insect. They taught me to "observe".

And yes, Sharon, that is me a few years ago. Like the beaver hat and the coyote ruff? The Russians teased me incessantly about the hat, but I think every one of them secretly wanted it.


Yeah Ken. I switched over to using a blowgun to deliver the anesthetic simply because it was a "gentler" approach. The big cats and bears hit with a dart gun , heard the gun's report and felt the rather hard hit. They would usually explode in an attempt to escape. With the softer, quiet delivery from a blow gun, they most often wouldn't react at all when they were hit. I've taken to using the blowgun even for wolves,





Yes, west side, the daily anticipation was exciting. However, the density of target animals was extremely low, so catches were not common. Actually, got a bit tedious at times, because it was so long between captures. I would never characterize it as boring, as the country was ever-so-interesting. Too, in the back of your mind, you were always thinking of the tigers that periodically eat forest workers. Have you read the book "Tiger" by Vaillant? It was written about a rogue tiger in the area I was working in.

Thirty years ago I was still in school, but I had a friend ten or fifteen years older than me that was offered a job to take his hounds over there and catch Siberian tigers, some that had already been collared in traps to retrieve/replace collars and also to catch additional ones to collar. He ended up turning the job down because he had two young kids and he would have had to been away without seeing them for a year. I wonder if those tigers he would have been catching to replace collars on would have been ones you originally trapped?

Did you ever work with Bart schleyer over there?

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Do those big cats fight those foot snares hard? Do they act similar to bobcats only bigger?

Mr. Jack you happen to ever run shoulders with the Darine Simpson guy? Remember seeing him on various shows using the adrich snares to catch lions tigers hyenas and the like

Generally, the big cats don't fight extraordinarily hard. The leopards were not much different than trapping mtn lions here in Idaho (for the Fish and Game for research purposes; lions are not legal to trap in Idaho). The tigers are just so darn big and strong, they'll ruin most any gear.

The animals were fitted with radio-transmitters and released. We were gathering basic ecological information (food habits, home range, population density, etc.).



The learning went both ways, Sharon. I gave the Russians a little taste of western technology. They paid me back by teaching me how to be a naturalist. They could read sign like no others. They knew each and every plant, mammal, bird, insect. They taught me to "observe".

And yes, Sharon, that is me a few years ago. Like the beaver hat and the coyote ruff? The Russians teased me incessantly about the hat, but I think every one of them secretly wanted it.


Yeah Ken. I switched over to using a blowgun to deliver the anesthetic simply because it was a "gentler" approach. The big cats and bears hit with a dart gun , heard the gun's report and felt the rather hard hit. They would usually explode in an attempt to escape. With the softer, quiet delivery from a blow gun, they most often wouldn't react at all when they were hit. I've taken to using the blowgun even for wolves,





Yes, west side, the daily anticipation was exciting. However, the density of target animals was extremely low, so catches were not common. Actually, got a bit tedious at times, because it was so long between captures. I would never characterize it as boring, as the country was ever-so-interesting. Too, in the back of your mind, you were always thinking of the tigers that periodically eat forest workers. Have you read the book "Tiger" by Vaillant? It was written about a rogue tiger in the area I was working in.

I never met you Jack, but I did meet and talk to Bart. That was before he went to Russia. He had already lived an adventure or two himself!