appeared to hunt the victims as if they were prey. However, it is difficult
to ascertain from the data how the prior history, or momentary
desperation, of these animals might have predisposed them to hunt
people. According to Suvorov, attacks on patrolling border guards were
“entirely ordinary occurrences” during this period.^11
Earlier data—from mid-century and back—is patchy at best, but for
what it’s worth no incidents of man eating were recorded anywhere in the
Russian Far East from the 1920s through the 1950s (probably because the
Amur tiger population was at an all-time low). In any case, most early
attack reports are anecdotal accounts collected by travelers and, with the
exception of the German lepidopterist whose remains were identified
only by his butterfly net and jacket buttons, they tended to involve
solitary Russian hunters, or Korean and Chinese ginseng collectors and
railway workers, some of whom were reportedly snatched from their own
beds. Chinese gold miners would also have been among the victims of an
atypical rash of attacks reported by the famed Russian explorer Nikolai
“Give me a company of soldiers and I’ll conquer China” Przhevalski.^12
According to Przhevalski, twenty-one men were killed and six more were
wounded by tigers on the Shkotovka River in southern Primorye in 1867.
Regardless of whether Trush’s, Smirnov’s, or Vasily Dunkai’s scenario is
closer to the truth, Markov had reason to believe the tiger might pursue
him. It is not known exactly how long he remained sequestered after
shooting the tiger, but on the morning of December 3, something
emboldened—or compelled—Markov to leave his cabin and make the
risky journey over to the Amba River, three and a half miles away.
Perhaps he was searching for his dogs, or he may have been looking for
backup to finish off the tiger. Whether the profit motive entered into his
calculations is not known. However, Markov did not go immediately to
see his friend Ivan Dunkai, but instead went northeast, to visit Dunkai’s
son (and Vasily’s brother) Mikhail. Mikhail was never interviewed by