Falconry is one of the oldest hunting methods of hunting in the history of the world. The concept of using a trained bird of prey, typically a falcon or a hawk, to hunt for various species of small mammals and birds is something that people have been doing for over 2,000 years. Even owls can be trained to hunt alongside people.
It’s a pretty uncommon form of hunting in today’s world, but I actually knew someone back in high school and college who still trains his own birds and frequently hunts with falcons and hawks.
I accompanied him on a few trips afield back in the day and seeing him work in coordination with his hawk to successfully track down a few rabbits and squirrels was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
Perhaps the wildest falconry stories in the world are about an ancient Mongolian tradition that is still practiced today though, in which people hunt wolves off of horseback using golden eagles.
It’s one of the craziest things you’ll ever see, though not totally surprising considering there is plenty of footage of golden eagles showing off their raw power by snatching foxes, hunting wild boars, and dragging coats off cliffs.
But this guy on TikTok might be on to something just as crazy though. He has apparently trained a hawk to hunt crows out of the window of a moving vehicle. You have to see it to believe it. I had no clue that drive by hawk hunting was a thing until today.
Not a lot of details available to accompany this video (it appears to be somewhere in Europe), but it is definitely the wildest thing you’ll watch today.
