This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

The lure of the urban life is wreaking havoc on ancient traditions here in Mongolia. One of these traditions is hunting with eagles. For 4,000 years, the clans of Western Mongolia have worked in partnership with golden eagles. Eagle chicks are taken from their nests and raised by a single hunter in order to create the intimate relationship necessary to working with a majestic bird of prey with 2-inch talons and a lethal beak. It’s this bond that allows this partnership to work: You don’t control an eagle: It has to want to work with you. Historically, eagle hunters have been men but there have always been a few women and, even now, there is one 13-year-old girl among the 70 remaining eagle hunters. No matter what your feelings are about the domestication of animals, you have to admit that the image of a fur-clad hunter on a horse, an eagle perched on a shoulder makes a great cover for a fantasy novel.

With thanks to Paula Li for this idea, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/08/21/the-4000-year-old-art-of-falconry-is-dying-out-in-mongolia-see-some-of-the-last-eagle-hunters-in-the-world/