The ninth book in the Remembering Wildlife conservation series goes on sale this week, featuring 88 stunning colour photos.
Proceeds from 'Remembering Tigers' will help increase awareness of the plight facing this majestic big cat, and raise money to protect them.
There are only around 5,500 tigers left in the wild and they are now restricted to just 10% of their historical range. Sales from 'Remembering Tigers' will be used to fund conservation projects in areas where they are vulnerable.
For anyone not familiar with the Remembering Wildlife books, leading wildlife photographers donate images of the species being featured; profits from the book and sales of prints that appear in it are then funneled to conservation projects.
The Remembering Wildlife project was founded by Margot Raggett in 2016; after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya, she resolved to do something about it. Eight years later, over $1.5m/£1.17m has been raised for 74 conservation projects in 33 countries.
A hardback coffee table book, 'Remembering Tigers' includes the work of many top wildlife photographers – including Art Wolfe, Jonathan and Angela Scott, Greg du Toit and Sergey Gorshkov – who have generously donated images to help protect leopards in the wild. The cover image was taken by Sarah Skinner.
'Remembering Tigers' goes on sale on 7 October, with an official launch event to follow on 9 October, at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London.
The launch event at the RGS is a hybrid one (live and online). Click here for more details and to book tickets.
Speaking alongside Margot Raggett MBE at the RGS will be executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) Belinda Wright OBE; tiger conservationist and author Valmik Thapar, and wildlife photographer and guide Paul Goldstein, who has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds by running 25 marathons dressed as a tiger.
'Remembering Tigers' costs $60/£49.50 and copies can be purchased here. Before it went on sale, we caught up with Margot to ask her six quick questions about the book and Remembering Wildlife…
Do you think this book will be the most popular one yet, given that it smashed its Kickstarter target in eight minutes?
It is hard to say but I hope so! It certainly stands up as being a stunning book in its own right and I’m just thrilled with how it has turned out.
I admit, I was a little nervous when we turned our attention to tigers because they occur outside of Africa, which is so popular with our fan base, so I was delighted when those fears were unfounded.
And why do you think the Kickstarter was so successful?
I think the Kickstarter was a success not only because people love tigers, but also because we were offering reprints of a lot of the previous books (like 'Remembering Cheetahs' and 'Remembering Rhinos') that were out of stock, on there too.
The cumulative popularity of the series is what helps us, I think, and it is so nice when people discover us for the first time because they, say, hear about 'Remembering Tigers', but then want to also buy back issues of the previous books too.
With 88 amazing colour photos supported by some thoughtful writing, is Remembering Tigers a must-buy for fans of the species?
Of course! I’m not sure there has ever been such a comprehensive, collaborative and beautiful book like it about tigers.
We’ve managed to get pictures of all of the extant populations including some very rare camera-trap images and they are all stunning in their own right. And the essays too give such a great overview of the story of the conservation of tigers.
The book is on sale now, but is there anything else for tiger fans to get involved in?
As well as the launch night itself (which people can attend or watch online), there is also an online auction running until 13th October.
There, we’re offering some fantastic bargain safaris to India to see tigers in the wild (as well as a safari to Tanzania, too) plus beautiful painting, sculptures, signed books and many other great items all donated to help us raise funds for tiger conservation.
Grab yourself something you love related to tigers and at the same time help their conservation – it's a win/win!
How much has Remembering Wildlife raised for conservation causes so far?
We currently stand at $1.5m/£1.17m distributed to 33 projects in 75 countries. This is beyond my wildest dreams from when we started out but equally is just a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done in the fight to keep wildlife across the globe alive. This is why I keep going; the urgency of the need is compelling.
And finally, we always have to ask… will there be another Remembering Wildlife book next year?
Ha ha, you know me, I won’t commit until I get through this launch and see it is successful. But never say never!
