Primorye’s stark realities seem to have hardly changed in the hundred-odd years between Arsenyev and Slaght’s visits. Slaght references Arsenyev in “Owls of the Eastern Ice” and his study locations sometimes overlap with those of the 20th-century explorer’s. In 2016, he published a new translation of “Across the Ussuri Kray,” a collection of travel writing by the naturalist Vladimir K.

He is also versed in Primorye’s fascinating history. He speaks the language fluently and considers Primorye - where he continues to work for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia program - a second home. An American citizen, he lived in Moscow in the 1990s with his diplomat parents and later spent three years in the country’s far east with the Peace Corps. Slaght was uniquely qualified to find answers in this particular corner of the world.

The more scientists can learn about the species, the better equipped they will be to propose effective protections. Fewer than 2,000 fish owls still survive in the wild, and logging and new roads are increasingly infringing on the endangered bird’s habitat. Prior to Slaght’s five-year project, conducted for his doctoral research, only a smattering of scientific studies - many of them decades-old - existed on the species. They feast on salmon and thrive in the inhospitable wilderness of northeast Asia, primarily in Russia but also Japan and China.

Like Amur tigers (also known as Siberian tigers), Blakiston’s fish owls are top predators. In “ Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owls,” Slaght transports readers to the remote wilds of Primorye to join him on his quest to study one of the world’s least-known owls. Slaght (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 356 pages). BOOK REVIEW - “Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl” by Jonathan C.

Owls of eastern ice