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“Most children,” Asher Svidensky says, “are a little afraid of golden eagles. However, Kazakh boys in western Mongolia start learning how to use the huge birds to hunt for foxes and hares at the age of 13.” Svidensky, a photographer and travel writer, shot five boys learning the skill as well as the girl, 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 in western Mongolia are the only people that hunt with golden eagles, and today there are around 400 practising eagle hunters. Ashol Pan, the daughter of a famous hunter, may well be the country's only girl hunter.
They hunt in winter, when the temperatures can drop to -40℃. A hunt begins with days of traveling on horseback through a snow mountain or ridge (山脉) giving an excellent view of prey for miles around. Hunters generally work in teams. After a fox is discovered, riders rush to frighten it into the open, and an eagle is released (释放). If the eagle fails to make a kill, another is released.
“The skill of hunting with eagles,” Svidensky says, “lies in bringing an unexpected force of nature under control. You don't really control the eagle. You can try and make her hunt an animal, and then it's a matter of nature. What will the eagle do? Will she make it? How will you get her back afterwards?”
Svidensky describes Ashol Pan as a smiling, sweet and shy girl. “Ashol Pan stands for something about Mongolia in the 21st century,” says Svidensky. “Everything there is going to change and is going to be redefined (重新定义), and the possibility is amazing.”
