Kazakh eagles

September 10, 2008 by Karin.

A family of Mongolian tourists pose as masters of the eagle.

Free roaming farm animals were exotic to me. So what’s exotic for Mongolians? Kazakh hunting-eagles, why not?

In front of Erdene Zuu, sat two escorted Golden Eagles. They were likely trained as hunters but were spending their summer vacation posing with guests.

 A photo of the Kazakh bird in its element.
 http://www.mongoliatoday.com/eagle.html  

 Birds are traditionally trained to attack foxes, not small children.

“Get it off! Get it off!”

I yelled desperately to a bunch of people who spoke no English. Batdolgor (our social worker) who held my camera kept snapping away, kept making the “wait, hold on, one more” gesture. She was waiting for the bird to spread its wings, for the bird’s owner to step aside, for my face to take on a more appropriately stoic expression.

For 1000 tugrug (about 1 US dollar), I posed with the smaller of the two birds. The trick to making the bird spread its wings is to make it unsteady, to shake it. In the photo, the trainer had to shake the bird so many times that it had slid down the thick glove and was getting close to my bare arm. It was a heavy, heavy bird.

Remind me to work on my triceps before attempting a trip to Kazakhstan.

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