Wednesday, April 17All That Matters

Man taking grandson and an eagle on hunt in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia

by AgentBlue62


Man taking grandson and an eagle on hunt in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia



View Reddit by AgentBlue62 – View Source
Deals

34 Comments

  • Familialrankin

    We call ourselves an advanced society, but we have got people dying at 50 from eating too many cheeseburgers.

    This dude is hunting on horseback with his 4th generation.

    Reply
  • thirdcough31

    Great photo, for anyone who thinks this is cool, I’d really recommend ‟The Eagle Huntress.” It is a fantastic documentary

    Reply
  • i_poop_alot

    I don’t know where it went, but Netflix in the US once had a show called Human Planet that was similar to Planet Earth except it highlighted the humans that live in extreme conditions throughout the globe, and I think the first episode showed how the Mongolians caught, trained, and used eagles for hunting. It’s one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen. Makes me feel like a little bitch driving to Aldi.

    Reply
  • Spartan2470

    [Here](https://i.imgur.com/z0k97Ja.jpg) is a higher quality version of this image [Here](https://www.tariqzaidi.com/tariq-zaidi-singles/h15ef9cd8#h15ef9cd8) is the source. Credit to the photographer, [Tariq Zaidi](https://www.tariqzaidi.com/).

    > A woman makes sure that her child; the eagle hunter’s grandson is safely secure. Hunting with eagles is currently only practiced by a handful of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs in one of the planet’s most desolate and harsh terrains; the Altai Mountains. This form of falconry; the practice of hunting with the aid of birds of prey; can be traced back as far as 4000 years in Central Asia. Bayan-Ölgii; Western Mongolia.

    He also posted this to his FB page on July 5, 2020 with the following caption:

    > A woman makes sure that her child; the hunter’s grandson is safely secure.

    > Dayan Lake in Western Mongolia is one of the least densely populated places on the planet. Surrounded by glacier-wrapped mountains, arid plains, barely any trees and temperatures which fall below -40C, life can be brutally hard for the nomadic families who make their homes and tend their cattle here. It is also one of the few places where you will still find Kazakh eagle hunters. The ancient art of training a golden eagle to hunt for foxes, marmots and even wolves, may have been practiced for 4,000 years, but is still very much a part of daily life for the families who depend on it for their survival. Hunting with eagles is not the only tradition the Kazakh nomads cling to in a rapidly changing Mongolia. With their own language, clothes and customs, this community live by a strong code of unwritten laws which structure an ancient, transient way of life in a stark but beautiful terrain. Photographer Tariq Zaidi spent weeks living with nomadic Kazakh families and learning about their lives.Eagle hunting is one of the endangered cultural traditions in the world today. The practice was listed by UNESCO as a living cultural heritage in 2010.

    **Edit:** Added higher quality version of the image and the FB caption.

    Reply
  • Dickpuncher_Dan

    Wow, a pole to support the glove so he doesn’t need to hold up a 5 kilo bird for a long ride. They’ve thought of everything.

    Reply
  • cdnsalix

    Ages ago the tourism show Lonely Planet did an episode on Mongolia and it was fricking awesome. Visited some Mongolian cowboys that had incredible horsemanship skills. Ate a groundhog cooked in its own skin of I remember correctly.

    Reply
  • No-Repeat-4953

    Man, all my grandpa did was pass me off to grandma whenever we’d “spend time together”. Mongolian kids got it made! /s

    Reply
  • RunsWithKeyboard

    So much going on. Child completely oblivious to the danger. Granddad determined to teach and protect. Grandma very aware of all that can go wrong. An awesome picture. That looks like a falcon to me

    Reply
  • Mellopiex

    When I was this little guy’s age, my dad would take me with him like this to move cattle. Not long after, I graduated into my own saddle, but my legs still didn’t reach the stirrups. Nostalgic!

    Reply
  • frankybling

    there was a long form piece about this on like 60 Minutes or some other show a few years ago… there wasn’t a lot of reporter track and relied heavily on natural sound and the sound bites from the people that live this life. (with a translator) I highly recommend it. I’m pretty sure it was 60 Minutes because I watched it after a football game on CBS.

    Reply
  • Dam_Kids

    My mom got mad at my grandpa for letting me sit on his lap and drive his new Lincoln…into a ditch. I can’t imagine what she’d have done if he took me and an eagle off somewhere.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Like Us
Follow Us
Subscribe Us
Follow Us