Falcon Hunting in Algeria by Eugene Fromentin

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The current picture is a work of Eugene Fromentin, a French painter, who had several visits in African regions, including Algeria.

Falconry has been a well-practiced hunting tactic in Algeria for many decades. You just raise one Falcon with good training of how to capture a flying bird and instead of eating it, bringing it to its owner. The practiced, experienced falcon would bring in more food. In African countries this technique was the only option in various parts. So, falconry was fully grown and serious source of food.

The trained falcons would hunt down the weak birds or slow rodents. But, sometimes falcons could become more daring and would catch a small animal, for instance, a little deer or a fox as shown in the current picture. The Falcons have brought a real mammal.

Paintings tell us many things about their contemporary times. As the current paintings tells a unique way of hunting in the old Algerian culture. And it is quite clever way to do so. There is no running around, panting heavily, aiming for perfect shot. A skilled bird does the entire job and the owners of the job enjoy their meals. Though, falconry should have its own hardships such as long term training to the falcons and or their relatively short lives than humans.

Though, during his trips to Algeria Eugene Fromentin was highly impressed by the local culture as we can see the details have put in executing the painting.