Jonathan C Slaght
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jonathanslaght.com
Jonathan C Slaght
@jonathanslaght.com
5.7K followers 660 following 2K posts
Author: Tigers Between Empires (2025). Owls of the Eastern Ice (2020, Best Book per NYT/WSJ, PEN America winner, Nat Book Award longlist). Work: Regional Director Temperate Asia @wcs.org. Home: Mpls https://linktr.ee/jslaght
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Jonathan C Slaght @jonathanslaght.com · Dec 3
A @startribune.com Best Book of 2025! "Minneapolis writer and naturalist Slaght's "Owls of the Eastern Ice" was hugely acclaimed in 2020 and "Tigers" may be even better....enlivened by the insights of Slaght, whose compassion and curiosity make his book suspenseful and urgent."
💙📚 🌍
"Minneapolis writer and naturalist Slaght's "Owls of the Eastern Ice" was hugely acclaimed in 2020 and "Tigers," which was inspired by adventures while researching "Owls," may be even better. It's about the Siberian Tiger Project's efforts to save the endangered big cats as the tigers battle poachers and climate change. The ambitious book is about nature, for sure, but also politics (the tigers' home happens to be on the fraught Russia/China border) and it's enlivened by the insights of Slaght, whose compassion and curiosity make his book suspenseful and urgent." —Chris Hewitt, Books Editor
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
jonathanslaght.com
Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #Dawn; any bird captured at sunrise. Alt. is #Dusk; any bird captured at sunset. Like usual I have a suitable Merlin photo. Here, the Minneapolis pair from 2017 watch the sunset along with a fresh kill - an adult male Downy woodpecker
A pair of Merlins bring a friend to watch the sunset. Photograph (c) Jonathan C. Slaght
October 17, 2026 at 9:10 AM
jonathanslaght.com
Sunlight on the larches, with Saturday evening traffic in Ulaanbaatar
View from a second-floor apartment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
October 17, 2026 at 9:36 AM
jonathanslaght.com
Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #Dawn; any bird captured at sunrise. Alt. is #Dusk; any bird captured at sunset. Like usual I have a suitable Merlin photo. Here, the Minneapolis pair from 2017 watch the sunset along with a fresh kill - an adult male Downy woodpecker
A pair of Merlins bring a friend to watch the sunset. Photograph (c) Jonathan C. Slaght
October 17, 2026 at 9:10 AM
jonathanslaght.com
coming soon: the tallest building in Mongolia
A tall building under construction looms over an autumn scene of Soviet influence
October 17, 2026 at 12:27 AM
jonathanslaght.com
Thinking about this drawing my daughter added to a signed copy of my owl book - I believe she was seven at the time. Wonder where it went and if the recipient appreciated it
A really good representation of a fish owl
October 16, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
Just finished reading Thubron's THE AMUR RIVER; BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA, which I rationed 1 section at a time. Reading it was deeply enriched by having read your superb world-enlarging TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES. Next I need to reread both books.
jonathanslaght.com Jonathan C Slaght @jonathanslaght.com · 1d
Just in time for the paperback release of Tigers Between Empires (November 3rd from @picadorbooks.bsky.social), a new review in The New York Review of Books by the great Colin Thubron! www.nybooks.com/.../burning-... #booksky
The thirty years that followed—years of struggle, elation, sometimes terror—are the subject of Jonathan C. Slaght’s intensively researched Tigers Between Empires. Slaght is a conservationist whose acclaimed study Owls of the Eastern Ice (2020) recorded his two decades monitoring the endangered Blakiston’s fish owl, largest of all owls, in the same harsh territory described in Tigers Between Empires. The immediacy of that personal quest is absent from his new book, a chronicle of the Siberian Tiger Project based on its own records and on meticulous interviews. But Slaght walked the project’s traplines, flew in its tracking helicopters, and witnessed the capture of the project’s final tiger. Often his descriptions, along with their scientific rigor, have the precision and vividness of firsthand experience, where the tigers become as characterful as their trackers. a tiger in the snow. Photo (c) Wildlife Conservation Society
October 16, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
jasondovemark.bsky.social
Had a blast last night speaking at Back of the Beyond Books in Moab, Utah, where they set me up to hold forth from behind Edward Abbey’s old wooden desk!
While I was waiting for folks to arrive, I got to read thru a photo copy of the Abbey’s original copy edit pass on Desert Solitaire…
Author speaking to an audience from behind an old wooden desk
October 16, 2026 at 10:12 PM
jonathanslaght.com
gotta hand it to WWF...they have amazing marketing 🐼
A cup saucer with a strangely shaped panda The strangely shaped panda on the saucer makes sense when coupled with a reflective cup
October 16, 2026 at 1:38 PM
jonathanslaght.com
Just in time for the paperback release of Tigers Between Empires (November 3rd from @picadorbooks.bsky.social), a new review in The New York Review of Books by the great Colin Thubron! www.nybooks.com/.../burning-... #booksky
The thirty years that followed—years of struggle, elation, sometimes terror—are the subject of Jonathan C. Slaght’s intensively researched Tigers Between Empires. Slaght is a conservationist whose acclaimed study Owls of the Eastern Ice (2020) recorded his two decades monitoring the endangered Blakiston’s fish owl, largest of all owls, in the same harsh territory described in Tigers Between Empires. The immediacy of that personal quest is absent from his new book, a chronicle of the Siberian Tiger Project based on its own records and on meticulous interviews. But Slaght walked the project’s traplines, flew in its tracking helicopters, and witnessed the capture of the project’s final tiger. Often his descriptions, along with their scientific rigor, have the precision and vividness of firsthand experience, where the tigers become as characterful as their trackers. a tiger in the snow. Photo (c) Wildlife Conservation Society
October 16, 2026 at 1:15 PM
jonathanslaght.com
Traditional Mongolian script on a wall in Ulaanbaatar. Introduced in 13th Century under Ghengis Khan, was replaced by Cyrillic in 1946. Still used as primary script in Inner Mongolia of China & seeing a revival here
Blue words in Mongolian script on a wall
October 15, 2026 at 11:43 PM
jonathanslaght.com
good morning Ulaanbaatar
October 14, 2026 at 11:53 PM
jonathanslaght.com
I was at the center of a security breach at the Astana airport but the Kazakhs were cool about it. Other than that, and the 4.7 earthquake in Dushanbe just as I was leaving, smooth trip to Ulaanbaatar where I now sit in 6am traffic
Traffic in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
October 13, 2026 at 10:56 PM
jonathanslaght.com
the Scat Airlines flight safety card looks like a David Byrne number
Smoke! Fire! Flee airplane but stay funky
October 13, 2026 at 6:22 PM
jonathanslaght.com
restating my belief that your airline name should not be a synonym for poop
Gate A4 at the Astana, Kazakhstan airport. Boarding for Ulaanbaatar on Scat Airlines
October 13, 2026 at 6:16 PM
jonathanslaght.com
"Think of [Dushanbe] as a giant outdoor art gallery, except the gallery is spread across an entire city & some of the exhibits are being bulldozed." Dushanbe is modernizing quickly & some older buildings w/mosaics are being lost to high-rises. This one is Goddess Themis (by Sangov Yusufchan, 1987)
A mosaic in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, shows the Goddess Themis A mosaic in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, above the front door of the Constitutional Court
October 13, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
ilhanmn.bsky.social
I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.

I will not be silenced.
October 12, 2026 at 4:01 PM
jonathanslaght.com
Tea & backgammon near Varzob, Tajikistan
Two men play backgammon while sipping tea on an unseasonably warm autumn day
October 12, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
jonathanslaght.com
spent a few hours today exploring an abandoned scientific station outside of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. There was a pool and everything
Rickety staircase in the woods A pool in the woods A house in the woods A dog in front of the Biology and Medicine Innovation Center
October 11, 2026 at 2:55 PM
jonathanslaght.com
spent a few hours today exploring an abandoned scientific station outside of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. There was a pool and everything
Rickety staircase in the woods A pool in the woods A house in the woods A dog in front of the Biology and Medicine Innovation Center
October 11, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
theonion.com
Pentagon To Livestream Firing Squad Execution https://theonion.com/pentagon-to-livestream-firing-squad-execution/
“No way is this administration capable of setting up a working livestream.” Willem Brydon, Unemployed
October 9, 2026 at 11:30 PM
jonathanslaght.com
I've wanted to come here for a long time. Finally in Tajikistan!
A passport stamp for Dushsnbe, Tajikistan
October 10, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
ruha9.bsky.social
I’m in DC scheduled to give this talk today. But the organizers flagged slides in my deck that mention racism, structural gaslighting, New Jim Code and other themes that are off limits in the Land of the Free.
APA Women’s Leadership Institute event flyer with “keynote speaker” crossed out with a red X
October 9, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
tajjaisen.bsky.social
You may have heard that nonfiction's having a rough time. I investigated for @thewalrus.ca. And it's very true, but not for the reasons you might think.

thewalrus.ca/nonfiction-i...
An image of a big red book that says "FICTION" on the cover. Behind it, a smaller book that says "NON-FICTION" tries to peek out.
October 9, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
I think this analysis is correct. Reports out of Russia for the last six weeks show huge diesel shortages and long lines of cars trying to get it. Russia doesn't have the diesel Trump says he's buying for them. This is all for another purpose, which is psy ops.
October 9, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Jonathan C Slaght
drlindseyfitz.bsky.social
Sorry, guys. This one's on me.
A quote from TSA that reads: just a reminder that our website says ARTIFICIAL skeleton bones are okay in carry-on bags we do not want to be part of the next documentary
October 9, 2026 at 3:38 PM