Mongolian hunter vig

**Corvus** · May 22, 2008

Hi there! I've been pondering for a little while on making a historical Mongolian vig, depicting a Mongolian hunter. As you can see, I finally got around to it.

I originally planned for a brickbuilt wolf and a brickbuilt eagle, but I was having a hard time with the eagle, so I went with the single peice, and no wolf.

Now, for your history lesson!

The hunters of Mongolia have used golden eagles for centuries for hunting deer, hare, etc. They also used these eagles to kill wolves. The hunter will pick the biggest eagle he can- a female- and train it.

The hunter will follow a lone wolf, and set the eagle on it. With 750 psi of grip in their talons, the golden eagle will grab the neck or head of the wolf and squeeze. This is extremely dangerous, though, and eagles have been killed by wolves. This isn't natural, either- the biggest thing an eagle will go after is a deer fawn.

These hunters train, shelter, and feed their eagles with great respect, and release the eagles when they've reached a certain age.

Some people might regard this as falconry. It is- but it isn't sport. Along with bows and guns, the eagle is a hunting tool. They are extremely powerful and efficient predators that the Mongolians have worked alongside with for centuries. However, these days some of this is for sport... :sceptic:

Falconry is viewed as a disgusting and unnatural sport. Not really- many modern falconers let eagles hunt for themselves, killing animals for food, like wild predators would.

EDIT: Sorry if my typing sounds odd. :blush: I got distracted and started searching up falconry on YouTube, and started reading the posts...Big mistake. :sick:

Squeaker · May 22, 2008

Nice! I've always loved birds of prey, and I am lucky to have a raptor center nearby my town! No, not raptors like the ones in Jurasic Park(although that would be awesome). Anyway, they take in birds with wing injuries, sicknesses or owner abuse and rehabilitate them back into their normal state (or as close as they can to a normal state), while schoolkids, scholars from the nearby (partially veteranary) univesity or the interested public can observe them. It's quite nice! I had no idea that Mongolians were so expierienced in raptors. I don't know what it is, but your vig seems to have an eerie almost lifelike essence about it. Why, I'm unsure.

Anyway, I also tried to design a bird of prey, a vulture to be exact, but it turned out to be a little bit big (for minifig scale);you can find it here. Edit:oops, I meant a scavenger, sorry... So into my paragraph about falcons :sweet:

Edited May 22, 2008 by Squeaker

**Corvus** · May 22, 2008

Thanks! I like your vulture- the head is really nice. I've made some here-Turkey Vulture, Raven, Harris Hawk, and a Harpy Eagle.

There's one where I live, too. It's a museum, but it also has a smattering of animals, mostly birds of prey, reptiles, various mammals. It takes in injured or imprinted birds. Every bird there cannot be returned to the wild, for various disabilities. For example, one of our ravens is blind, and the other was raised since it was a chick, and can't be released or else he'll fly over to the nearest neighborhood and start jumping on people's heads.