Mongolian eagle hunters release birds after 10 years

On May 14, 2026, the X account AMAZlNGNATURE circulated a video it said showed Mongolian eagle hunters releasing trained birds after about 10 years in human care. The clip could not be independently authenticated from the post alone, but the practice it references matches a well-documented Kazakh tradition in western Mongolia. (x.com) In Bayan-Ölgii province, ethnic Kazakh hunters known as berkutchi train golden eagles to hunt small animals from horseback in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Multiple travel, cultural and reporting sources describe a customary cycle in which hunters keep an eagle for several years and then return it to the wild rather than hold it for life. (msn.com) The “10 years” claim in the viral post is plausible, but sources differ on the typical length. Some accounts say eagles are released after five or six years, while others describe a span closer to 5–10 years or “10 years or so.” That means the exact timeline in the video should be treated as an estimate unless the hunter or original filmer identifies the specific bird. (news.stv.tv) The birds involved are usually golden eagles, and several sources say hunters often prefer females because they are larger and stronger hunters than males. The birds are generally taken young from the wild, trained by one household, and used during winter hunting seasons before release. (discoveraltai.com) The release is not usually described by practitioners as abandonment. Accounts of the tradition say hunters return the eagle while it is still strong enough to survive and breed in the wild, often in mountain areas connected to where it was first taken. (discoveraltai.com) The broader practice sits inside falconry traditions that UNESCO lists as Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO’s multinational falconry inscription began in 2010 and was expanded in 2021 to include 24 states parties, including Mongolia and Kazakhstan. (discoveraltai.com) The viral post also compresses a more specific local story into a generic one. These are not simply “Mongolian eagle hunters” in the broad national sense; the tradition is most closely associated with Mongolia’s ethnic Kazakh community in Bayan-Ölgii, near the Altai Mountains. Estimates for the number of active hunters vary by source, but several recent accounts put it in the low hundreds. (msn.com) The next place to verify more would be the original uploader or the person who filmed the release. Without that, the safest reading is that the video reflects a real and longstanding eagle-hunting custom, while the precise date, location and age of the released bird remain unconfirmed from the X post itself. (x.com)