Commercial Animals.
Sources from the 19th to early 20th centuries contain information about wild animals and their distribution areas. Typical representatives of the fauna of the Tien Shan mountains included tigers and leopards, which inhabited the bushes and reeds along riverbanks, wild boars, bears, lynxes, wolves, foxes, martens, badgers, squirrels, wild cats, ferrets, stoats, marmots, kulan (wild horses), wild goats, mountain rams (argali), marals, as well as birds: vultures, eagles, golden eagles, falcons, and harriers (Kostenko, 1880, pp. 42, 43). All wild ungulates that were hunted were referred to as "kiyik," including the argali kulja (mountain ram), too echki (mountain goat), and maral.
They also hunted hazel grouse, pheasants, capercaillies, and migratory birds (Zeland, 1885, pp. 10, 11). To obtain fur, the Kyrgyz hunted tigers, snow leopards, wolves, foxes, and bears. The mountain ram was valued for its beautiful white fur. For a long time, the meat of small animals and birds—such as hare, ulara (mountain turkey), and various types of partridges like kekilik and chip—was consumed.
Fur was often used for barter for necessary goods or sold for money, and it frequently served as a valuable gift. However, the fur trade did not bring significant income: "the nomads do not know the price of their goods and sell them for a pittance to merchants... for rotten goods: matu (paper canvas), waste, and so on. The merchants, acquiring fur in this way, export it to Russia. The most fur is obtained as a trade in the vicinity of Lake Issyk-Kul. Here, during the winter, approximately... 2000 foxes, 200 lynxes, 100 bears, and 3000 wolves are harvested by the Kara-Kyrgyz" (Kostenko, 1880, p. 42). Although the figures provided are not entirely trustworthy, they give a general idea of the scale of the fur trade.
In folk medicine, the barely grown antlers of the maral deer (marał) were used as "panti." As early as the Middle Ages, the Kyrgyz harvested this valuable medicinal raw material—musk from the kabarozhya stream—which improved potency and was in high demand among the Chinese. Hunting for marals in the Issyk-Kul district in the 19th to early 20th centuries was considered the most profitable.
"The enormous branched antlers of these deer, when covered with fur, contain a special liquid of medicinal properties, and are highly valued in China, where they are predominantly sold at a very high price.
Hunting them is very difficult, exhausting, and is carried out exclusively by Kyrgyz" (Schreider, 1893, pp. 184, 185).
Hunting has been an important component of the complex economy of the Kyrgyz from ancient times to the early 20th century.
