Once I recovered from the brief shock of this Kazakh eagle hunter deciding to plant himself next to me as I photographed the other eagle hunters, he let me take a few photos and this video. Yes, I got a selfie.

This was taken during the #GoldenEagleFestival at the base of the Altai Mountains, just outside Bayan-Ulgii, #Mongolia, about 100 miles/160 km from the nearly intersecting borders of #Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and China. October 8, 2019

I spent an afternoon at an eagle hunter ger camp. The lead/elder hunter told me that they capture their eagles in the surrounding mountains, care, feed and train them to hunt small game. Each eagle is released back to the wild after five years of captivity.

#travel #photography