Tracking The Eagle Hunter in Mongolia

..Night: two strangers approach a yurt. Steppe, salt lake, hundreds of kilometers of no roads behind. We ask for a permission to built out tent alongside. A Mongolian says NO And adds: the night will be very very cold. Pauses. Friendly, but at the same time insistently offers to stay at his yurt – there is a fire heated by dried excrements. Our modesty was not considered – we’ve slept warmly, and the landlords spent their night in non – heated shed aside. That forced us to appreciate this large country and come back once again. This time it is North-West part of Mongolia where 2000 year old traditions of eagle hunting takes place.
Our goal is to get behind hunting eagle story.

For our new companion Marseille the trip through “Mother Russia” did not prolonged, only week and 5700km behind us we concurred it all, starting from Latvia up to Mongolian border which we reached on 25th of September.

First stop Ulgi town (west-north of Mongolia) where we where greeted by bunch of curios kids. Since it was sunday the main square where we stopped had an open market. Mongolia has a population of only 2.8 million – one million of them lives in the capital. Ulan Bator is considered one of the most polluted cities in the world. Ulgi city does not look much better. There is strong soviet influence on architecture felt in the country. Soviet red army “helped” to establish in 1921 the Mongolian People’s Republic was established.

Mongolians cities did not appeal for us that much, pollution and dust combined with intrigued locals who mingle around does not make for a good rest stop. We decided to move towards country side where is less crowded but no matter where we go we just can’t avoid interest in our presents. This time we attracted attention of bunch of goats. Live stock quantity is 15 times larger than human population.

Just few percent of total land is suitable for crops while more than eighty percent of Mongolia’s land area available for livestock such as goats, sheep, yaks, horses, cows and camels.

Mongolia offers you a lot of visual material, local kids early morning horseback riding to school is one of those moments. Shy kids giggling and hiding from cameras did not make it an easy task.

Goats on the other hand make it much easier to work with.

We arrived to a place where local family is packing and moving to another location where they will stay through harsh winter. All the goods already packed and cow is just a friendly reminder that we need to pack our stuff too.

Upon our arrival even we insisted not to, the family slaughtered a goat to show the hospitality for new guests. Tomorrow for them is a busy day packing and moving to a winter location. A frequent Mongolian citizens (North-West part of Mongolia is populated mostly by Kazaks), following live stock, changes location of residence four times a year (it can vary) – rebuilts his yurt.

After milking a cow for their own needs woman let young calf enjoy the rest of the mothers milk.

Getting ready with our gear for big moment, tomorrow morning is the moving day.

Amazingly just in few hours all things are almost ready to be taken to a new “winter location” The construction of a ger is really simple and well thought.

To be really honest in our days cars are used more often to move stuff from one location to another. Since this family winter place was not that far they opted for a camel.

Indeed local (this is the part of Mongolia where majority of population is kazak’s) hospitality is so strong that a visitor doesn’t even need to knock on a door of a ger or wait to be invited in—he or she just opens the door and walks in. This goes both ways, they can just jump in to the truck without any warning.

Most of the minivans roaming around Mongolian prairies is a Russian UAZ. This is the sure way to start the car.

Eagle is looking for a pray which in this case is just a rabbit caught by the eagle owner. It is only a training for this mighty bird, in the future it will be trained to catch foxes and in some very rear occasions even a wolf. Though the wolf hunting is more surrounded by a legends than a reality.

Training was successful, now the eagle can enjoy it’s catch.

The only mirror girl had to look at while combing her hair is on the motorbike.

Those living in yurts have satellites and solar batteries, but for heating and cooking still uses animal excrements… There is only few paved roads in Mongolia near Ulan Bator. Country trying to build and modernize infrastructure for transportation, but road construction and bridge building don’t go so smooth.

Spending time in different parts of Mongolia we start noticing some details, one is that Mongolian style ger’s are a little smaller than Kazaks yourt’s.

The youngest 13 year eagle hunter which now become popular even in the west. The British film crew in few days will start film a documentary about her. This year she scored a high place in annual eagle festival of Ulgi.

Our companion Marseille which got through Russia without a hick right away got involved in diplomatic relations with Mongolian dogs. Unfortunetly it did not went well, it’s not the dogs who caused the problems, the ticks attacked Marseille undercover and by next morning he was in really bad shape.

Dark days came upon us and we already thought he won’t make it especially after doctors visit who was very surprised that someone is worrying about the dogs well being.
He also was shocked that we fed him with special dog food and insisted that the meat is the only right way to go. He took a needle out his pocket, gave some vaccination to Marseille and told that tomorrow he will feel much better. Just to make sure that we did everything possible to save his life after prolonged consultations with Lithuanian veterinaries the IV was done by two self proclaimed nurses Zilvinas and Giedrius.

Next day Marseille indeed felt much better and in the evening he already got busy with his usual activities. To his surprise Shepherding Yaks did not turned out so well, the beasts surrounded him and launched an attack. Hopefully lesson is learned.

Annual Eagle Hunting festival gathers hunters from around the region and is another threat for Marseille, he easily can become a victim of a powerful bird. Staying in the camper is the only option for now.

Traditional outfit parade is in the festival program.

Live prey is not used any more during festivals, the skins of dead animals is dragged behind the horses to mimic running away catch. Time is taken right after eagle released from the hand of eagle hunters companion who stands on the slope of the mountain and calculated to the first contact on the moving animal skin.

First day of festival activities starts by letting eagles to return to the Master and counting time how long it will take.

The culmination of a festival is a Camel race. Cheering crowds gathered around the track and police is forced to clean the area.

Area 1,564,115.75 km2. A country of almost half West Europe’s size – (Germany, France, Spain combined all together is still smaller than Mongolia)
Average altitude 1500m above see level.
In Gobi desert the temperature fluctuations up to 90C are one of the biggest in the planet.

North West Mongolia’s landscape is not typical, There are higher mountains named Altai than in the rest of the country, tops over 4000m covered with round year snow.

With nomadic herders who stay living pretty much same style as hundred years ago, in Mongolian culture “is not winter yet”