Amazing Pics: A 13-year-old eagle huntress in Mongolia
Last edited Wed Apr 16, 2014, 01:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Several More Pics at Link. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150
A photographer who snapped what could be the world's only girl hunting with a golden eagle says watching her work was an amazing sight.
Most children, Asher Svidensky says, are a little intimidated by golden eagles. Kazakh boys in western Mongolia start learning how to use the huge birds to hunt for foxes and hares at the age of 13, when the eagles sit heavily on their undeveloped arms. Svidensky, a photographer and travel writer, shot five boys learning the skill - and he also photographed Ashol-Pan.
"To see her with the eagle was amazing," he recalls. She was a lot more comfortable with it, a lot more powerful with it and a lot more at ease with it."
The Kazakhs of the Altai mountain range in western Mongolia are the only people that hunt with golden eagles, and today there are around 400 practising falconers. Ashol-Pan, the daughter of a particularly celebrated hunter, may well be the country's only apprentice huntress.
They hunt in winter, when the temperatures can drop to -40C (-40F). A hunt begins with days of trekking on horseback through snow to a mountain or ridge giving an excellent view of prey for miles around. Hunters generally work in teams. After a fox is spotted, riders charge towards it to flush it into the open, and an eagle is released. If the eagle fails to make a kill, another is released.
Continued at Link with more amazing pics:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150
= new reply since forum marked as read
the eagle is more inscrutable 
They are about the friendliest damn people I've ever met.
Also if you can. pick up the documentary, "Genghis Blues" - it's Tuva, not Mongolia, but still, very similar, wonderful friendly people.
I guess once you conquer every place i nthe world worth conquering at the time, you can take it easy for the rest of time 
I watched the Feynman documentary about Tuva and also The Long Way Round with Ewan McGregor and now I really need to find a way to get there. I was joking with my SO that being Mongolian, you can do whatever you want because you've conquered the known world from horseback and most of Russia and Asia has your genes 
The people look awesomely friendly and happy. Can't wait to see it, but since we're divers, most vacations are planned around gin clear water. What a difficult choice!
since everyone knows eagles only exist in the U.S. of A... 
We wouldn't have made it our national symbol if it *wasn't* specifically unique to our country and our way of life 
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him. "
"For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
not sure that he *wanted* it to be a turkey.. rather that a turkey would have been a better choice than a bald eagle
He said the turkey was fast and cunning to escape its foes, naturally he was speaking of wild turkeys, not the ones bred for slaughter.
And I believe he accused the eagle of 'bad morals' for dining on rotten carcasses and being an opportunist.
Raptors are known for killing prey unexpectedly and that speed and brutality is exploited in art work. But they may not like it after all, or so says the Onion:
Golden Eagles operate from Florida to Spain, via Alaska and Siberia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Eagle
Bald Eagles are about the same size, but restricted to North America:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle
The Bald Eagle is mostly a fish eater, but will eat mammals and ther birds.
Both Eagles are members of the Accipitridae Family of Birds:'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accipitridae
While the Bald Eagle is just in North America, its close cousin, The White Tail Eagle operates in the same niche in Eurasia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_Eagle
As a rule the Golden Eagle is the better hunter of land creatures, the Bald Eagle and it Eurasian cousin the White tail Eagle, do better at fishing and have more efficient digestive systems (thus can live in areas that can NOT support a Golden Eagle).
This one is breathtaking
OMG, I love this kid!!!
You are, yes you are!
Gooood one! 
Nose Kissies!!!
I'd love to have an eagle buddy to hug
Sigh.
I recall an article from 'the progressive', years ago, quoting the Dalai Llama as saying to not be surprised if there are more female llamas in the future, that he himself could return in female form. He said the time of male authority was passing.
I'm glad to see this in that part of the world. Dad's family is Hungarian, I've a cousin who could pass for this little girl, she has the Mongol features, very beautiful. I'll have to send her this link. But gosh, seeing her with that powerful piece of nature on her arm, that's just straight awesome.
Reminds me of John Denver's Eagle & the Hawk:
I am the eagle I live in high country in rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky
& I am the hawk and there's blood on my feathers, the time is still turning they soon will be dry
& all those who see me and all who believe in me feel all the freedom I feel when I fly
Come dance with the west wind and touch all the mountaintops, feel all the … (that's all I remember)
..
reach for the heavens and up to the stars… all that we can be and not what we are
I forgot what part of the country it was. Thanks for posting this beautiful OP.
... but I'd keep that beak away from my face.
