At the begging of October 2019 I became the first foreign hunter who arrived to Uzbekistan after the Government of this country had accepted the new rules of trophy hunts for the rare species. Uzbekistan, along with Tadzhikistan, became the country which made real steps towards the regulation of the trophy hunts and did it for purpose of the rational usage of the natural resources. The company Falcon Hunting Solutions, which is responsible for the organization of hunts for foreigners, including the hunts for the rare species, was established by the decision of the the Cabinet Of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2018. For today it actively develops the sphere of ecological and hunting tourism in the country. They formed five hunting Game farms and created the system of the biotechnical and security measures there. All Game species of Uzbekistan inhabit there. The hunting grounds cover all landscape zones: such as mountains, wetlands and deserts. The company launched the program of conservation, breeding and resettlement of animals listed in the Red book. The kennel for breeding Severtshev sheep was made on the Nuratinsky ridge. They are going to settle and reintroduce Bukhara deer (Hangul) to the places where they lived earlier in the floodplain of the Syrdarya river. There are plans to breed other species too: markhor, Tien Shan mountain sheep, saiga antelope, Ustyurt urial and the others.
The specialists of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with their colleagues from the Institute of Zoology of Tajikistan recorded the number of Severtsev sheep. The scientists had found animals in the places where nobody expected to find. A new expedition, which has to define the habitat and number of population of Bukhara mountain sheep and markhors, listed in the domestic and international Red Books, is scheduled for October.
Falcon Hunting Solutions , the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Ecology and Environmental Protection and the State Committee of Forestry of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed the mutual cooperation agreements in the sphere of development of the ecological and hunting tourism in the country.
The International Convention CITES provided them a quota for two permits for Bukhare markhor per year. Lots of specialist and animal rights activists in Russia just discuss and argue about ways how to protect and develop while all these thing are successfully realized in other countries. It’s difficult to account the direct affect of these decisions but we know that the average investments from the hunting tourism to the economy of Tadzhikistan, which realized the same programs, is more than 5M dollars. Probably, it’s not big money for our country or the international grants, received from so-called Green organizations, are much bigger but the question has not yet moved from a dead point.
But I have to note that all these investments are targeted and come to the definite companies and organizations which provide people with the stable income, create new jobs, buy technics, protects animals and host lots of biotechnical and other events which are very important for the hunting economy. I’ m absolutely sure that none of them can count on the worthy of funding from the State and it means the they won’t have the opportunity to organize everything on the high level and make in full. We know the alternative of it is the destruction of wildlife. The economic interest of the individual user, local communities and tribes creates a real protection mechanism which is more effective than the unnatural system of prohibitions and restrictions, which doesn’t stop the poachers.
Let’s come back to the hunt. The first part of our expedition took place in the Surkhandarya province of Uzbekistan. The local outfitter Bekhruz Abdishukov met us at the airport of Termez, then we drove to the Hatak village located on the boundary with Turkmenistan. I have to note that all needed papers such as permits from the authorities of Uzbekistan, including the border service and national security services, were taken by our outfitter in time. The hunt for sheep was organized in the border area but for a Bukhara deer in the neutral zone in the Amu Darya floodplain on the border with Afghanistan.
It was the early morning when we went for a hunt for Bukhara urials and markhors. The hunting ground represented the mountain plateau rugged by the steep canyons, a favorite habitat of horned goats. Urials traditionally prefer to stay on the more gentle parts of the upper plateau or in the lowlands of canyons. We spent some time moving along the ridges looking for the goats. The first goal, we detected, was the lonely Bukhara Urial, which had day rest in the shadow. It was really hot and the temperature reached 25-30C, animals were active only in the early morning and in the evenings. The sheep was taken be the first shot, made from the distance 350 meters at high-angler trajectory. The luck was on our side and going down to the valley we spotted the lonely markhor. The shot, from the distance 400 meters, stopped the animal. It was the nice 12 years old male with excellent chest and beautiful symmetric horns. The first hunting morning was very successful. I didn’t want to waste time and in spite of the sleepless night in the plane and car I took the decision to move in the evening to the next hunting area, located on the boundary between Uzbekistan and Afganistan, where were going to hunt for a Bukhara deer. The way to the one side took us about two hours. At the sunset we arrived to the place. None of us , the outfitter and I, knew how we would hunt there. We realized that had to approach to the animal at night but it was all. Nobody hunted there before us. Strict borderguards checked all our papers and compared with the lists, they’d received earlier. They accompanied us to the hunting place. The first attempt wasn’t successful because all area was covered by the high reeds. That area was the original habitat of the Turan tiger, the last of which was killed in the mid of 50th in the last century. We watched lots of tracks of roars and deer, that was reassuring. We moved to the ground coated by the low shrub vegetation - Tugai. There we could monitor the surroundings and listen to the roar of the stags. In twenty minutes we noticed the silhouette of a bull and heard another one. We managed to approach it 30 meters from leeward and made the accurate shot. The trophy didn’t have good trophy features and it pushed us to thought that the population is in the stage of degradation. Due to the limitations and isolation of the area there is a closely related inbreeding.
If nothing is done we’d lose the population of this rare Bukhara deer in future. We took the genetic samples, thanked the boarderguides for their support and drove back to the base camp. The result of the first day was three planned trophies. Next day we arrived to Tashkent and they drove to the north –east of the country to the boarder with Kyrgyzstan. Pskemsky ridge, which is the part of the Tian Shan mountains, is located there. We were going to hunt for the Siberian Ibex, the CMH identified its rating position not long ago. It was warm at the beginning of October and Ibexes stayed near the snow borders on the height from 3000 masl. We started from the altitude 1200 masl. Three hours we rode by horses and then climbed by foot three hours more and reached the height 2700 masl. The Ibexes were visible against the snow. The first two groups consisted of females with babies but then we noticed one more group of four males which grazed not far from them. It wasn’t good sign at that part of the year because the rut season would start in a month and the bigger males preferred to stay far from the females. Only the youngsters used to stay close to the herd. But we had no choice and went to that group hoping that there would be a trophy size goat. We could approach 700 meters and no more. The animals started to move from us. Using the scope we found one male which was estimated by our guides like 7-8 years old male. I decided to fire and got it from the distance 705 meters. I remembered with a kind word my prefabricated munition of 338 Cal, which is very stable in speed unlike the fabric cartridges. The accurate calculation of speed plus my experienced helped me to use the only chance to get the Ibex, which became the 51st in my CAPRA collection.
The way back by foot to the foothill took me 2.5 hours. But telling the truth I did it with pleasure. Usually I lose some kg in such expeditions but Uzbek cuisine is so tasty that I had the chance to gain some extra weight. I deliberately refused to ride by horses and hiked about 10 km to the base camp. So ended my fast and vivid hunt in Uzbekistan. The guys were kidding that they’d got new hunting standard, “ two days, four trophies, and one of which is from 700 metes”.
Thank very much to the local outfitters and wish them success in the new destination of the trophy hunts. The first pancake wasn’t lumpy, for us
All staff prepared well and worked very professionally. There are lots of sightseeing in Uzbekistan, which you can discover after hunting. The pearl of the East Tashkent, magnificent Samarkand and Bukhara. All cities are clean and cozy. Uzbekistan is famous by its ancient history, culture and hospitable people. I really think that Uzbek cuisine is the best on the East. Here the Tamerlane's warriors created the recipe of the fantastic pilaf. I’m so glad the new hunting destination appeared in our schedule. It became available for the hunters thanks to the wisdom and foresight of the Uzbek authorities.
