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The Tiger
- A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
- Narrated by: John Vaillant
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: The tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region.
This ancient, tenuous relationship between man and predator is at the very heart of this remarkable book. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters, and how early Homo sapiens may have fit seamlessly into the tiger’s ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator that can grow to ten feet long, weigh more than six hundred pounds, and range daily over vast territories of forest and mountain.
Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.
Critic reviews
2011, The Orion Book Award, Short-listed
“This book must be read by everybody who is interested in the conservation of wildlife. It takes you to the Russian wilderness to meet face-to-face with the Siberian tiger.” (Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human)
“This book is magnificent, surely the best chronicle ever published of the wild Amur tigers in Russia’s Far East. In it are chilling accounts of human encounters with tigers—but these encounters, however fearsome, convincingly demonstrate the role that these enormous cats continue to play in the natural world. Equally compelling are the people of Primorye, those who of necessity must hunt the tigers, and those who would preserve them. To call this book a page-turner is an understatement. It’s riveting.” (Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs, The Hidden Life of Deer, The Old Way, and Tribe of Tiger)
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One of our most influential anthropologists reevaluates her long and illustrious career by returning to her roots and the roots of life as we know it. When Elizabeth Marshall Thomas first arrived in Africa to live among the Kalahari bushmen, she was 19, and these last surviving hunter-gatherers were living as humans had for 15,000 centuries. After a lifetime of interest in the bushmen, Thomas has come to see that their lifestyle reveals great, hidden truths about human evolution.
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Interesting first hand experience
- By Victor on 05-25-07
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Coyote America
- A Natural and Supernatural History
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- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
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Coyote America is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards and its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse.
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Very Enjoyable Book, Subject Matter, and Reader
- By John Townsend on 03-17-17
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American Hunter
- By: Willie Robertson, William Doyle – contributor
- Narrated by: Alan Robertson, Willie Robertson – introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Chronicling the great hunters of America - beginning with the Plains Indians and moving through legendary hunters like Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill, Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Lyndon Johnson, and more - American Hunter honors the heroes and traditions that have built America.
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terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-13-20
By: Willie Robertson, and others
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A Small Furry Prayer
- Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life
- By: Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Steven Kotler was 40 years old, single, and facing an existential crisis when he met Lila, a woman devoted to animal rescue. "Love me, love my dogs" was her rule, and Steven took it to heart. Spurred to move by a housing crisis in Los Angeles, Steven, Lila, and their eight dogs - then 10, then 20, and then they lost count - bought a postage-stamp-size farm in Chimayo, New Mexico....
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Great book
- By Shirley on 08-29-11
By: Steven Kotler
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A Traditional Bowhunter's Path
- Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw
- By: Ron Rohrbaugh Jr.
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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This guide to traditional bowhunting with a longbow or recurve combines the best of both worlds for beginners and veteran bowhunters. How-to chapters share hard-earned wisdom that will help you perfect your skills and get close to game, while engaging stories tell of the author’s experiences hunting white-tailed deer in the east, chasing big game in the American West, and trekking to South Africa in search of Greater Kudu and other plains game.
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A great primer on Traditional Bow hunting
- By Tory A. Utt on 06-25-19
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Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
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Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
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The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
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The Lost City of Z
- A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
- By: David Grann
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A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to find out what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z.
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A Worthy Read for Armchair Explorers
- By Jennifer Seattle, WA on 03-01-09
By: David Grann
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In the Company of Bears
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Imagine raising an orphaned bear cub, carefully reintroducing her to the wild, then being welcomed back, almost daily, to observe her wild world for more than 17 years. Imagine visiting her in her feeding spots, watching her with her mates and her young, peering into her den, and, over time, observing the lives of all the other wild bears in her territory and surrounding ones. That is what happened to Ben Kilham.
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Best Bear book I have read!
- By Walking With Bears on 06-02-21
By: Benjamin Kilham
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Roosevelt the Explorer
- Teddy Roosevelt's Amazing Adventures as a Naturalist, Conservationist, and Explorer
- By: Paul H. Jeffers
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
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Story
No American president has been more enthusiastic in appreciating the wilderness and in conserving our nation’s natural treasures than Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). And no other president wrote more about nature and his explorations of it than T. R., in scattered books, such as African Wilderness, and in his countless letters, including those collected in The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt).
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Performance
- By John on 01-12-18
By: Paul H. Jeffers
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American Buffalo
- In Search of a Lost Icon
- By: Steven Rinella
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- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
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Performance
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Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
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Phenomenal
- By Hunter Cole on 08-01-19
By: Steven Rinella
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The River of Doubt
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- By: Candice Millard
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At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
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This audiobook deserves 6 stars
- By D. Littman on 11-15-05
By: Candice Millard
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Elephant Company
- The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II
- By: Vicki Constantine Croke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
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Story
At the onset of World War II, Williams formed Elephant Company and was instrumental in defeating the Japanese in Burma and saving refugees, including on his own "Hannibal Trek." Billy Williams became a media sensation during the war, telling reporters that the elephants did more for him than he was ever able to do for them, but his story has since been forgotten.
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Story of Friendship, Loyalty, and Bravery
- By Patrick on 04-15-15
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For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.
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Good book by Millard, narrator ruined it
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great old fashioned story.
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What listeners say about The Tiger
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mel
- 02-16-13
Thy Fearful Symmetry
"Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger Tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night..." [Wm. Blake]
Imagine--the largest species of tigers, the Amur, or Siberian tiger: 700 lbs., with a chest girth of 56 inches, 12 feet long from nose to tail, 4 feet high at the shoulder. The best camouflaged animal in the forest, stalking you, unseen--silently on giant paws hiding retractable claws the size of a velociraptor's. The golden eyes are unblinking and the mounth slightly open revealing teeth that are 5" long and over an inch thick at the base; the jaw has the power of 1200 psi; the tongue is covered with small hook-like projections that can lick the paint off a building--or strip meat from a bone. If you are average, you can run about 11 mph--but you are in knee high snow...the tiger can run 50 mp--in the snow. From a crouch, it was thought the tiger could jump 12 feet high, until at a San Francisco zoo an Amur tiger jumped a 12 1/2 ft. fence, escaping it's enclosure; launched from a run, the tiger can cover a distance of up to 30 feet . The roar of the animal is so loud it is in the *sonic realm* and distorts the neurological pattern. Now, imagine that animal has a memory, a temper, and a grudge against you!
Vaillant has painstakingly combined the legends and facts about this amazing and endangered animal and woven them into both the political history of Russia, and the true story of the fateful expedition. The combination is fascinating and kept me absorbed--even though I wanted more tiger. The amount of research that has gone into compiling this book is mind-boggling, and Valliant has constructed a flawless platform for his closing statements.
..."the side effect of our ravenous success...we are in charge of this tiger's fate--an extraordinary power for one species to wield over another...what will be the results?"
The dwindling Amur are not the stars of this book--it is Valliant's research and presentation...necessary to protect such majestic animals, and guarantee there will always be the Amur tiger.
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36 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Richard
- 09-10-10
Very well written and a must for Big Cat fans
I'll begin with the author's reading skills: Pretty damn good. Above average voice and tone...While true that reading your own book at the Audible.com level is generally a poor idea....this proves to be an exception.
Since it's very well written and tells a story that I found fascinating...I have to give four stars...more like 4.3...Some might not like the multiple digressions into Russian history, animal psychology, and lots of other words ending with "ology" but the digressions are the book...otherwise, it's a short magazine article about events that occurred on the border area between Russian and China where the biggest of the big cats dwell...in dwindling numbers...supported by some dedicated Russian "inspectors" and wildlife foundations....endangered by poachers seeking to sell tiger parts to morons in China and elsewhere that revere tiger penises and bones as "medicine"...The narrative revolves around the killings by a tiger in 1996 that terrorized the small region...the book is a travel book...history book...adventure book...nature book...and a must read for big cat fans.
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26 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sean
- 10-25-10
Moby Dick meets Brothers Karamzov
This book grabs you with a fast paced, exciting first chapter but never really delivers on that promise.
In trying to describe the events of the attack and put them in context the author strays a little too far a little too often to hold the reader. Further, the big question introduced in the first chapter is never answered satisfactorily.
I appreciated his description of post-perestroika Russia, which I was almost completely ignorant of before this book. But the background starts to feel like a history lesson and you keep asking "but what about the tiger?" This is even worse when he goes into the personal histories of the involved hunters and townspeople. I'm certain these people made a tremendous impression on the author, but the details of their lives do not really move the narrative along.
The writing is excellent--having lived "up north" I really was transported by his descriptions and he re-creates the feel of village life quite well. I also enjoyed his narration. It is difficult for an author to read their own book, but he manages to inflect well enough to make you catch puns you might otherwise miss.
With better editing this could have been another "Into Thin Air" but as is it requires some effort to get through.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Lynn
- 08-29-11
W0W
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival is one interesting read through which John Vaillant (The Golden Spruce) takes up the story of revenge by a Tiger victimized by a poacher. Along the way reader is taken in by the storyline while being introduced to related economic, political, and conservation issues. Frankly, I have never read anything quite like this story. It is John McPhee with a dark story and twist. It is Yann Martel’s Life of Pi in a nonfiction narrative. Most impressive are the sections in which Vaillant lets the reader into the mind and cognitive nature of the Tiger. I was taken aback several times. In sum, this is a very interesting book. At least pick it up and read a few passages before you make up your mind. Vaillant reads his own book to great advantage.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Susan
- 12-20-10
A great story well told.
Tigers, Siberia, hunting man eating tigers in Siberia. I would never have considered this book had it not been recommended by a good friend. Lucky for me, I had the day off today or I'd have been up all night. A tiger kills a man in Siberia in a way that strongly suggests she chose her prey and stalked him for some time. The men who hunt her try to understand why. Do tigers hold a grudge? Is this all about retribution? If so, for what? It reads like a great mystery/thriller with enough history and psychology (or us and the tigers) thrown in to make it one of my favorite reads of the year.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Johnnie Walker
- 08-29-10
All over the map - literally
The tiger is almost a bit player in this book that ranges from anthropology to cold war politics to conservation. All those topics are interesting in their own right but do not always work juxtaposed together. This is also one more example why, as a rule, authors should not read their own books. The reading in not bad, but neither is it great. I would have enjoyed it more at half the length and more on point.
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- Andrew
- 09-26-10
Interesting topic and well read
This book is a little like Cod, or Krakatoa, in that it centers on a single event or subject but spends most (or most) of its time on topic's periphery. I tend to enjoy books written this way. The Tiger is not equal to Cod or Krakatoa (I would rate both five starts) but is still informative and enjoyable.
The reader (author) does a great job. I came away feeling confident in my pronunciation of Vladivostok.
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- W Perry Hall
- 02-02-15
Symbolic Siberian Man-Eating Tiger
The wonders you might find in the giant and bountiful gardens of literature have never failed to amaze me. One need only look widely enough and take a chance and he might be put in the Siberian taiga (the sometimes swampy coniferous forest of high northern latitudes) in far eastern Russia as the locals encounter a looming Amur tiger (a/k/a Siberian tiger which can grow up to 10 ft. & 660 lbs.), seemingly intent on exacting revenge for being shot and having already eaten two men in separate incidents over several days.
In the course of this account, Mr. Vaillant colors the local characters and the poverty in the Primorski province of the Russian Far East, and makes one contemplate who is more danger to man (Panthera tigris altaica or Hominis corrupti regimen).
Mr. Vaillant does a great job narrating and paints a fuller picture with his voice inflections and pauses. This makes him an exception to the rule that authors make lousy narrators, though I'm finding more and more that some narrators apparently believe they can improve up (i.e., modify) the book by adding ridiculous accents, emphases that are clearly misplaced, and their otherwise overly dramatic flourishes.
Brilliant nonfiction that I'd not heard of until a few days ago while digging in the Audible/Amazon.
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- Brian Quaranta
- 01-11-14
Suffers in comparison to other similar books
I was led to this book by audible's recommendations, and it sounded interesting enough. It looked like it would fit the mold of three books I have really enjoyed recently; Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand, and Destiny of the Republic and River of Doubt by Candice Millard. These were all notable for taking historical episodes that are little known now, but naturally incredibly interesting stories, and applying the skills of a gifted storyteller to them. The result in each case was a page-turning and edifying read, and I thought I'd get the same thing here. A brave band of intrepid hunters chasing down a vengeful man-eating tiger in the freezing forests of Russia? How can that not be riveting? I expected therefore to like the book, but ended up being disappointed. I made it through but only with considerable effort.
Vaillant's writing style is well-suited for this work, and it is obvious he did extensive research. The effort involved shows through. It almost seems, though, as if he went out there intending to write a book on an incredible story, and then discovered, after a great deal of time and effort, that the story was just not as interesting as he thought, but decided he'd done the work and had to go through with the book anyway.
Previous reviewers are correct that there is a much material covering the history and sociology of post-Perestroika Russia. Too much, in my opinion; I could have enjoyed some of that but there was more here than I needed. The information on Tiger biology and behavior, and on the hunting of tigers, held my interest better.
Valliant's format is in fact very similar to the one Millard employs in her books. Begin In Media Res; then go back to the beginning; then alternate chunks of relevant background material with chunks of story advancement. The main problem in The Tiger, I believe, is that the protagonist, antagonist, and events are just not big enough. When Candice Millard goes off on a backstory tangent about Teddy Roosevelt or the early Amazon explorers or James Garfield or Alexander Graham Bell, the material there is gripping. These are big people who did big things. The hunters described by Vaillant were rugged and determined and all that, but Teddy Roosevelt they were not.
The tiger itself suffers in comparison to the antagonists that come to mind when approaching a book like this; Moby Dick, Jaws, or the Lions in The Ghost and the Darkness. These animal villains are larger than life, they terrify us but win our respect, and the protagonists are elevated by defeating them (or just trying). Vaillant is limited by the constraints of real life - of the events that actually happened, but without wanting to give any spoilers, the titular tiger will not inspire the nightmares that Jaws did.
So I'm tempted to give Vaillant a break and say that the events just weren't incredible enough to provide the material for a great read. But then I think again of Millard's description of the protagonist Bell against the antagonist "bullet lodged in Garfield," and how I couldn't wait to read about it, even though I knew full well what happened in advance. So, maybe there was enough material here.
Take it for what it's worth, many of the other reviewers clearly liked it, but for me it fell short of the other books of its type that I'd read recently. I will say that Vaillant was quite good as the narrator of his own book.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-25-18
A good book about consequences.
Even with 1/2 dozen f-bombs and some rambling I still enjoyed this book. Ths true story was sad and yet very enlightening. Giving the reader a front row seat to witness the stories of a tiger bent on revenge, the men who caused the tiger to react, the men who brought down the tiger, and their families who suffered the consequences for all time.
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