The Kazakh of Mongolia

Eagle hunters are Kazakh people living in the western part of Mongolia. Even though they are not ethnically Mongolian, the eagle hunters have been living in the Mongolian side of Altai Mountains for centuries and they are inseparable part of Mongolia. Mostly living in the western part of the country.

The hunters usually choose a female golden eagle as their companion and prefer to capture “teenage” ones that have an ability to fly and catch preys on their own rather than eaglets that are yet to learn how to fly. Although the life expectancy of the golden eagles is 30-50 years, most of the trained eagles get released after 5-6 years in order to keep the population growth going. Golden eagle’s natural diet includes wide variety of preys but the hunters primarily aim for red foxes, corsac foxes and hares.

Kazakh herding families in Mongolia today are considered semi-nomadic. For most herding households, this means that the household will move their herds, largely comprised of sheep and goats, although also containing variously camels, horses and yaks, to different pastures for each of the four seasons. Some households will move only two times, once in the spring to the summer pastures and again in the fall back to the winter pastures. Others will move up to four times, depending on the quality of the pasture in a given year. Most families return to specific pastures year after year with use of that pasture being passed down through families.