Jonathan C. Slaght, PhD, is the Regional Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Temperate Asia Program, where he oversees WCS programs in China, Mongolia, and Afghanistan, and projects in Russia and Central Asia.

His first book, "Owls of the Eastern Ice," was longlisted for a 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2021.

Slaght's "Tigers Between Empires" was released in November, 2025, and named one of the Best Books of 2025 by the Minnesota Star Tribune, Scientific American, BookPage, and more.

His other writings have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Audubon Magazine, among others.