TITLE: An Inexplicable Link

Hunting with eagles is a 4000-year-old tradition of Central Asia especially among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. The female eagle is taken from its nest as a chick (a perilous undertaking to say the least) and is nurtured and trained by the hunter to hunt small animals like fox and rabbits. The open plains make hunting a challenge, so the eagle does the hunting. The hunters only keep the eagles for 7-10 years and then release the bird into the wild. This can be a very emotional undertaking as the eagle-hunters believe the spirit of the eagle is intertwined with their own spirit.

AUTHOR: Shobha Gopinath (Singapore)