The Kazakhs hunt with the eagles!

In the Bayan Ulgii regions of western Mongolia, even today, proud hunters use the giant golden eagle as Medieval European aristocrats used the falcon to hunt pheasant.

From the cover of Stephen J. Bodio’s Eagle Dreams (2003)

Actually, the Kazakhs are Asian, but not nationally Mongolian, not originally. They were pushed into western Mongolia when Russian (Moscovite) aggressions drove eastward–some two hundred years ago. Russian domination become more pronounced with industrialization. At the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan contained a population of 54% Russian (Moscovite). The first president of the independent Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazirbyaev, called for all Kazakhs outside the new country to return there. More than half of the Kazakhs living in Mongolia decided to make the move. The Kazakh ethnicity was greatly strengthened by the accession of many of the keepers of flame of Kazakh culture. The Kazakhs had remained more or less separate and isolated from Mongolian society proper.

Kazakhstan, in green. Mongolia is to the east. Kazakhs are a “Turkic” people,

from the Turkish-Arabic word meaning free, independent. The Russians (Moscovites)

called them the more familiar name, Kossaks. There borders have alwyas been

fluid, since they were simply another nomadic people of the great Asian Steps.

Eagle hunting, however, is probably Mongolian. Some contend that the actual practice of hunting via bird-of-prey is practically prehistoric, dating to 6000 years ago in Asia. (By Asia, we mean the Steps, not the jungles.) Records show that Kubula Khan brought ‘falconry’ to Europe in the 13th century. The Khans, of course, were Mongolian.

But the Kazakh neighbors obviously picked it somewhere along the way. The golden eagles they use today are quite huge, and they perfer the female, because she is a third larger than the male, and hunts much more aggressively. (Sounds like a female lion, eh? At least on the hunting part.) Her wings can spread up to eight feet. She can weigh nearly 15 pounds. With eyes eight times more ‘telescopic’ than human, an eagle can see a fox or rabbit a mile a way.

Falconry, the use of the small falcon to hunt, became a fine art in Europe, of course. But is was always a luxury of the court. Here, today, in western Mongolia, the Kazakhs–among the most simple people of the world, they use eagles! It is pure sport. Fine hunting for hunting’s sake. No social status involved.

Information and photos in this Journal entry taken from Mongolia Today, an article by BlueWolf Tourism. Also recommended: Eagle Dreams: Searching for Legends in Wild Mongolia, by Stephen J. Bodio (2003).