Sport of kings
‘The hunter dismounted, picked up the dead duck and while he watched the disappearing falcon an idea was born.’
Somewhere, shrouded in the hazy mist of time, a hunter on his pony and his two dogs were braving the icy cold of the dawn on the steppes of Mongolia. In the first pink glow of the sunrise a flock of white-fronted geese high above him crossed the endless plains. The long, dark night of winter was finally over and the snow that began to thaw collected in low places to form small ponds.
The songs of snow buntings, pipits and longspurs, and the whooping of cranes and squawking of ducks came down the wind as birds arrived daily on their long migrations from the south. The hunter was desperate; his family needed fresh meat and he couldn’t afford to slaughter another horse. The winter was harsh and claimed many victims. Game was scarce and although the wide plains abounded with migrating birds, they made small targets for his arrows or throwing sticks and the dogs could not catch them.
The invention of gunpowder and shotguns lay still two thousand years in the future. High above the hunter a peregrine falcon circled on an updraft from the warming earth. The rising column of air pressed upward beneath her spread tail and long narrow wings as the horizons of the great silent land moved further away.
She was so high the hunter could not see her, but with eyesight eight times more acute than his, she could watch his every move. The cold of the night left her hungry. Suddenly the dogs flushed two tufted ducks from the edge of a small pond. The falcon saw them, swung in a wider circle out of the updraft, rolled over in the air, gave six swift wingbeats to generate speed and folded her wings tightly against her body. She fell like a meteor, plummeting 2 000 feet in 10 seconds.
She passed over the hunter, overtook the ducks and struck the hind one in a trail of white feathers. She landed with her quarry and with the notch in her bill, killing it with a swift bite to the neck. She saw the dogs coming and the hunter that followed. She hissed at them but to save herself, abandoned her prize.
The hunter dismounted, picked up the dead duck and while he watched the disappearing falcon an idea was born.
Nobody knows when or where falconry began, but a bass relief depicting a falconer dated 1 700BC was discovered in the Khorsabad ruins in Mesopotamia, while ancient Japanese literature mentions falcons, given as gifts to Chinese princes 500 years earlier. It is perhaps hard for us today to understand the part that falconry played in people’s lives and its importance. As a sport in the middle ages its popularity and the number of its followers could be compared with those of soccer in the modern world. The fact that during other times and in other regions falconry was popular among all classes of the population as a productive hunting method, indicates that it must have played a significant role in the wellbeing and survival of many.
Few people nowadays understand the principles of falconry. Basically it is the pursuit of wild quarry with a trained bird of prey as your primary hunting weapon. But there is more to it, like the falconer’s vocabulary in which the word falcon always refers to a female, while a male is called a tiercel, an old bird a haggard and a nestling an eyas.
Many people believe that a trained raptor flies and catches the quarry, and brings it back to the falconer. This is not true. The bird hunts and kills for itself because that is what it is born to do.
The falconer is not the master but the hunting companion who locates and flushes the prey. That they may share the prize later has never been the intention of the bird, but of the falconer, whom the bird has grown to trust and who it will allow to approach quietly as he never openly robs it of its kills and usually allows it to eat its fill. While the bird eats the falconer will secure it, as it will fly away after being sated, not needing its human partner for the time being any more.
For pure hunting excitement there is nothing to match the thrill of hunting with a trained falcon, hawk or eagle if it is done correctly. To be a successful falconer you must have lots of leisure time and patience. It’s a commitment that must not be undertaken lightly.
A bird is not a toy that can be discarded once the novelty has worn off nor a hunting weapon that can be stored in a safe after the hunt, until it’s needed again. It’s more like a baby that never grows up. It needs constant daily care and attention in and out of the hunting season, come rain or shine. Like a top athlete it needs regular exercise and hunting practice under real-life conditions, and because a good hunting dog is essential in most facets of falconry, its training must also be mastered together with that of the bird. All this requires a lot of study and commitment.
Financial implications involve good housing and equipment, including expensive, imported telemetry equipment as well as the cost of regular driving to areas where suitable quarry is available. It is not a hobby, but a lifestyle and I therefore discourage all but the most dedicated and determined to ever consider getting involved. – Abré J Steyn Contact Abré J Steyn on • 083 235 4822.
