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| The men follow the animal tracks in the snow then release their giant eagles into the air to snatch up foxes and rabbits. |
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| Many in Kazakhstan see eagle hunting as a symbol of their nation's nomadic past and a throwback to an oft-romanticized era before these steppes turned into a geopolitical battleground between competing regional powers Russia and China. |
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Two decades of economic growth that followed Kazakhstan's independence from Moscow's rule in 1991 have also created a generation of young Kazakhs whose search for a new identity has led them to look deeper into history."In Soviet days all of this was forgotten because everyone had to believe in communism," said Dinara Serikbayeva who runs an eagle-hunting museum in the village of Nura. Speaking in the Soviet-built House of Culture building where functionaries once lectured villagers about a fast-approaching communist paradise, she said eagle hunting has turned into a symbol of this new quest for identity .
Called berkutchi in Kazakh, professional eagle hunters number only about 50 in Kazakhstan -- a vast nation that has used its oil wealth to transform itself from a sleepy Soviet backwater into a modern consumer society.They often gather in the icy hills on the Kazakh border with China -- far from cities like Almaty, bustling with luxury cars and wifi cafes -- to determine whose eagle is the best.
The Kazakh eagle is one of the world's fiercest, with a wingspan of 6.6 ft, razor-sharp talons and the ability to dive at the speed of an express train -- up to 190 mph.
During a Dec 5 tournament, a panel of juries watched with unsmiling faces from a hilltop as hunters, clad in fox-fur hats, unleashed straps and sent eagles into the air. Villagers prepared kebabs in open-air barbeque stands, loudspeakers blared folk songs, and tourists with binoculars and fluorescent outdoor gear stared in wonder. |
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