Excerpt from A Wild Life: A Visual Biography of Photographer Michael Nichols by Melissa Harris

"'There is no creature on Earth who will make your hair stand on end like a wild tiger,' says Nick. 'They are magnificent.'

The tigers' stronghold is in one of the most populated places on Earth. It seems almost impossible that India would have wild tigers -- yet it does. 

But they wouldn't be there if Indian maharajas hadn't liked shooting them. They set aside land in India for these tigers to live on so they could hunt them for fun -- not in a sporting way whatsoever -- and almost every piece of that land now is a national park that has tigers in it. 

They have survived this long because wealthy people liked hunting them...

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