Eagle Huntress

I recently watched a spellbinding documentary filmed in2016 called Eagle Huntress. Its the true story of Aisholpan, the thirteen year old daughter of a Kazakh nomadic Mongolian family. Her family spend summers , living in a yurt in the Altai mountains, and spending winters living in a house in town. Her father is an eagle hunter and this 13 year old wanted to become an eagle hunter too. Its traditionally a male event, but with her father' help she learns to train Golden Eagles.

Her father also helps her capture her own Golden Eagle to train. Her father also supports her when she wants to enter and participate in the annual Golden Eagle festival where men show off their eagles in the many ways they have been trained to provide both food and furs.

Facing both disbelief and strong opposition from the men, she competes and ends up winning the competition. Her eagle even breaks a speed record in one of the events. After the festival, she must complete another stage in the bird's training in order to be known as an eagle hunter. She travels with her father during the winter into the mountains to hunt for foxes. After several misses, her eagle successfully kills its first fox.

This 13 year old girl becomes the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations of her Kazakh family.