By Maria Golovnina
CHENGELSY GORGE, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – With its piercing
eyes fixed on a frightened fox, the golden eagle swoops down
from the sky, its huge wings blending into the shadows of the
red rocky steppe.
The fox leaps into the low bushes to escape. But it’s too
late. A second later, the eagle is perched on its back, tearing
flesh and squawking victoriously.
In eastern Kazakhstan, hunting with eagles is a
centuries-old tradition preserved by a handful of families who
pass the skill from generation to generation.
“The noble eagle is our life and art. It is in our blood
and our genes,” says Erbol Muptekeuly, an Arabic language
teacher from a traditional hunting clan.
Clad in fur hats and embroidered tunics like those worn by
their nomadic ancestors, hunters, or berkutchi, gather in the
shadow of the Tien Shan mountains each year for the winter
hunt.
Bearing golden eagles on their leather-gloved forearms,
they huddle on a hill, some murmuring ancient incantations and
stroking the birds’ smooth feathers.
A fox, released from a wooden crate in the valley, is
spotted, and in a single gesture, the hunters unleash the
leather straps attached to the eagles’ legs, sending the birds
into the air. The hunt is on.
With a wingspan of 6.6 feet, a curved beak and razor-sharp
talons, the golden eagle can dive at the speed of an express
train — up to 190 mph.
“Our men used the eagle before they invented bows and
arrows,” said Toligen Makhambichin, a 41-year-old from
Kazakhstan’s northern steppes.
“We’ve now got rifles and markets where we buy meat, but we
still come here every year to hunt like in the old days.”
NOMADS TODAY
The scene in the mountains of Tien Shan might seem like a
throw-back to the times of Genghis Khan — said to have kept
hundreds of eagles — were it not for the crowds of tourists,
kitted out with digital cameras, mobile phones and binoculars.
As the hunters, many on horseback, prepare for the event,
techno remixes of Kazakh folk music blare from loudspeakers and
makeshift stalls sell drinks and kebabs.
Winters can be freezing here with temperatures dropping to
minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but the fans don’t care.
“Kazakhs are still nomads in their heart. People from big
cities get tired of sitting in their offices all day doing
paperwork,” says Bagdat Muptekekyzy, who organizes the hunt.
“They come here from all around Central Asia to reconnect
with their ancestors. They turn into nomads again,” she said.
Some fans come from as far away as Australia and Western
Europe, where the sight of a trained eagle tearing a fox to
death would upset many animal rights activists.
“This is truly amazing, just incredible. I’ve never seen
anything like this in my whole life,” said Jaap F. de Boer, a
Dutch businessman who cut a strange figure in his stylish suit
and necktie among the crowds wearing fur and sheepskin.
“It’s like bullfighting in Spain, it’s culture, it’s
traditions. Why care about the animals? We humans kill animals
and eat meat ourselves, don’t we?” he said.
The foxes are captured from the wild and then released for
the hunt. The eagles chase the animals, and eventually most
foxes are hunted down and killed.
Makpal Abdurazakkyzy, a bashful 19-year-old with bright-red
cheeks, is the daughter of a famous berkutch and the only
professional woman hunter in Kazakhstan.
“I grew up among the eagles,” she said in a shy voice. A
gigantic eagle perched on her arm, blindfolded with a small
leather hood and twisting its head impatiently.
“In Kazakhstan many things are done by men, especially
hunting. But it is not we people who train the eagle but the
other way around. I’ve learned a lot from them.”
Kazakhs say the eagle — depicted on the country’s national
flag — is a symbol of statehood and independence. During 70
years of Soviet rule, eagle-hunting was frowned upon because it
was considered an elitist sport.
“This big bird unites everything we are proud of in
Kazakhstan,” says Muptekeuly, the Arabic teacher. “It’s good to
know that this rare bird of prey has survived millennia and is
still with us in the 21st century.”
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