![]() al-Salmi district, 120 kms west of Kuwait City, on Decemin preparation for a falconry competition. And they – in the falconry culture of the region – would be worth a very great deal of time, effort, and money.įrom Father To Son, Hunting Status: A Kuwaiti boy holds his falcon during a training session in. Skilled falconers can trap these birds and educate them to the wrist. Third – perhaps the ultimate draw – as one of the oldest crucibles of falconry in the Middle East if not in the world, southern Iraq and the Euphrates delta has a very large population of wild raptors, from falcons to hawks. ![]() First and foremost, there's a daisy chain of lakes running down alongside the Euphrates - on the north side of this chunk of desert - which is why there's more game. Among many Gulf State falconers, this is a beloved stretch of hunting country for three reasons. The hunters were working a section of the Iraqi desert southeast of Basra, bordering Saudi Arabia. ![]() The falconry and the sporting knowledge of the terrain behind the event is instructive. (Photo credit: KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images) Liwa Oasis, southwest of Abu Dhabi, on December 26, 2015. The two Iraqi guards at the oasis bivouac were apparently released.īoxing Day Workout, Abu Dhabi Style: An Emirati falconer moves a lure to attract a falcon in the. True, there were over two dozen Qataris to be taken, but fifty pickups is a great number of pickups to deploy in any direction for any reason, much less fifty pickups kitted out with high-caliber automatic weapons. The abduction from the oasis took place at 3 a.m. ![]() (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Īnd that kind of money on the table at a prize show goes a long way toward explaining why, in mid-December, twenty-six – or twenty-seven, depending on the dispatch – Qatari falconers bivouacking at an oasis in the Bassiyah area of al-Muthanna provice in southern Iraq were taken hostage by a sizable, yet-unnamed militia force mounted on what police reports describe as fifty trucks with machine gun mounts on the beds. Falcon Hospital, the largest facility of its kind in the world, treating some 9000 birds a year. Serious Money In The Bird, Serious Health Care: A falcon awaits a health check at the Abu Dhabi. Or, about what a medium-solid prospect of a colt would bring at the Keeneland Thoroughbred sales in Kentucky. At the end of the festival month, on January 30, what's being colloquially described as a falcon beauty pageant will take place, meaning, a thoroughbred-racehorse level judging of the birds, with the top bird taking 500,000 Qatari Riyals in prize money, or about $ 137, 336.22, at current rates. The timing of the Gulf's festival season is, by the way, climatically based - the desert cools at this time of year, hunting safaris are far less strenuous, and the birds, some of which are Northern European in origin, have an easier time at work. The Al-Gannas Society, Qatar's falconry association, is hosting the January festival at the Sealine resort in Messaeed, on the beach just south of Doha, with plenty of free airspace over the desert at its back. Qatari affection for the sport knows practically no bounds: Doha's Museum of Islamic Art sponsors an ongoing exhibition called The Hunt, part of which is an outreach educational program for children.
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