TIGERS by Jean-Pierre Zwaenepoel (Chronicle: $12.95;...

TIGERS by Jean-Pierre Zwaenepoel (Chronicle: $12.95; 80 pp., paperback original). The African lion is called the King of Beasts, but the tiger displays a feral elegance that many find more truly regal. In this handsome study, Belgian photographer Jean-Pierre Zwaenepoel recounts the months he spent observing a small group of tigers in a central Indian game preserve. Although the world tiger population has rebounded somewhat in the last two decades, the Caspian, Javanese and Balinese subspecies are extinct, and only about 50 specimens remain of the Chinese tiger. Hashim Tyabji notes in the introduction that, unlike many endangered species, the tiger was never confined to a specialized ecological niche; this highly adaptable predator requires “only adequate food, water and cover to thrive in conditions that vary from semi-arid thorn forests to frigid Siberian evergreens.”