Hunting with Falcons!

Yesterday I received a call from my Qatari friend Ali who asked if I wanted to go to the desert with him and his friends to do some falconry. My answer was something along the lines of, "Heck yeah!”. I've never been hunting with falcons before.

Falconry is a very popular sport in Qatar, and many Qataris own falcons that they use for hunting either here or abroad (apparently North Africa and Iraq are popular destinations for hunting). There are a number of stores that sell falcons and falconry equipment, and I even know of two different veterinary clinics in Doha dedicated to falcons. Falcons are very expensive to purchase and maintain, so owners take great care of them. It was great that I was going to see some falconry in action.

First, we drove out of the city. Ali let me drive his Land Cruiser.

We laughed that this may have confused people -- seeing a Westerner driving a Land Cruiser with a Qatari as a passenger. (Inside joke, if you lived in Qatar you would understand).

Then we went to the desert up north to meet Ali’s friends (and their falcons).

Transporting a falcon is pretty straightforward, just put it in the car.

Training a falcon

Falcons need to be trained. A technique they were using was to tie both the falcon and a pigeon on a long string, that way the falcon could practice attacking pigeons without the pigeon being able to fly too far away.

Hunting

Once trained you no longer need the string, but you still need to provide a falcon with lots of practice so it can become a good hunter, which is what we were mostly doing today.

First, you need a trained falcon (duh).

Then you hook the falcon up with a transmitter so you can find it in case it flies too far away

Then you need some prey.

You take the pigeon at least 50m away from the falcon, release it, then release the falcon to go after it. Then jump in the Land Cruiser and drive after them because depending on how long it takes the falcon to catch the pigeon they might fly for kilometers.

Et voila!

Once the falcon catches the pigeon, its owner immediately assists, using his hands or a knife to remove some of the feathers and bones (many captive-raised falcons don't realize they shouldn't be eating the feathers, which are a choking hazard).

Once the falcon starts eating it's easy for the owner to pick it back up onto his hand (as long as he's holding some meat)

Now for another falcon to practice. This time I got to handle the dinner.

The pigeon was really giving the falcon or run for its money, constantly weaving around and staying low to the ground. Suddenly a second falcon appeared out of nowhere and attacked the pigeon! It belonged to another group of Qataris who were training falcons further down the desert. Both falcons pounced on the pigeon as it went to the ground. The owners of the falcons immediately rushed in to separate them before the falcons hurt each other.

One of the Qataris took a couple of nasty scratches to his hand separating the falcons but he was more concerned about his falcon getting hurt. The falcon appeared to be okay and happily ate its pigeon. Even so, its owner planned to take it to the clinic tomorrow to make sure.

Not much left of that pigeon!

After a couple more hunts it got dark so people got out some cushions from their trucks and we lit a fire, sitting around chatting while drinking coffee and karak.

All in all a really cool day. I hope to go again sometime.