In the video below, John Vaillant, author of the The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, tells an audience at TEDxYYC about the similarities between tigers and human beings. Given these similarities—big mammals, apex predator, highly adaptable, intelligent, and stunningly “superior”—John Vaillant asks an illuminating question: what can we learn from the tiger? It turns out learning from tigers could help conserve the human race.
“Tigers manage to be superior without being separate,” Vaillant says.
Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) at the Leipzig Zoo. The Amur tiger, or Siberian tiger, is currently listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List with around 450 individuals left in the wild. Photo by: Appaloosa/Creative Commons 3.0.