In the wild western frontier of Mongolia, live the Kazakhs, the biggest ethnic minority group in the country. The Mongolian Kazakh still maintain the ancient tradition of eagle hunting. The hunters, known as burkutchu, first kidnap their eagles from the wilderness, then train them for several months until the eagles turn to a powerful weapon to hunt foxes. The tradition dated back from the 10th century. Currently, there are not many real eagle hunters left. There is an effort to preserve the culture of eagle hunting by conducting the annual Golden Eagle Festival in Olgii, but it turns to be more a commercialized cultural event to foreign tourists. There is a worry that the eagle hunting culture will be totally disappear in few decades.
Bayan Olgii, Mongolia, 2009