Realms of the Russian Bear: A Natural History of Russia and the Central Asian Republics

The sheer size of the former USSR defies the imagination. It covers one-sixth of the total land area of our planet and embraces eleven time zones between the border with Finland and its eastern limits, which almost meet Alaska. Straddling Europe and Asia, this mighty country boasts a wealth of natural landscapes and wildlife worthy of its vast dimensions. Realms of the Russian Bear takes its readers on a safari which begins at the Volga Delta in the south-west, with its incredible numbers of wildfowl and other waterbirds, and ends in the Russian Far East. There the mighty Steller's Sea Eagle soars over the pristine coasts of the Kamchatka peninsula, a land of smoking volcanoes and huge Brown Bears, while further south Leopards and Tigers pad through the lush semi-tropical forests of Ussuriland. The great mountain ranges guarding the southern borders, home to the rare and elusive Snow Leopard, the huge Karakum sand desert of Central Asia, where wild asses roam across savannahs of pistachio trees, and the windswept steppes with their wandering herds of Saiga Antelopes are dramatically described from season to season. The author then turns to the cold icy coasts and islands and the huge expanses of tundra in the Russian Arctic, before visiting Siberia with its freezing coniferous forests and Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, where long isolation has produced a multitude of unique creatures. Illustrated throughout with superb colour photographs, Realms of the Russian Bear, which accompanies the six-part television series, is an unforgettable wildlife exploration of one of the world's most remarkable and least known regions.