Eagle Festival 2014 held near Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Ahead of the Kazakh Nauryz holiday, the Annual Eagle Festival ran Wednesday at a tourist camp near Ulaanbaatar. The event attracted some 500 visitors, including representatives of international organizations, city residents, as well as foreign tourists to see competitions of hunting with eagles and handkerchief-battles. At the festival present were Culture, Sport and Tourism Deputy Minister M.Tumenjargal, A.Bakei MP, and Foreign Minister L.Bold. Mr Tumenjargal granted honorary certificates to best eagle hunters. The hunting with eagles contest involved 18 eagles and many generations of hunters, the youngest is 17 and the oldest – 60. Bayan-Ulgii Province has around 400 eagles in total. Kazakhs living in Bayan-Olgii Province of Mongolia continue to hunt with eagles today. There are an estimated 400 eagle hunters in the Western Mongolian province. Their falconry custom, so-called 'horse-riding eagle falconry', is unique in practice only with trained Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos daphanea) on horseback. Their hunting target is almost limited to Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) or Corsac Fox (Vulpes corsac). In the first week of October, 70 eagle hunters gather for the annual Golden Eagle Festival of Mongolia. They use eagles to hunt foxes and hare during the cold winter months when it is easier to see the gold colored foxes against the snow.