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!