In an interview with a Turmush correspondent, Nargiza shared that her fascination with predators began in childhood. Frequent trips to the summer pastures with her father allowed her to master the art of tracking wolf footprints and studying their behavior.
“From a young age, I accompanied my father on his trips to the high mountain pastures where we herded livestock. I never felt afraid of wolves or other wild animals. When we rode, we often encountered these predators. I was always curious about where they had gone and often followed their tracks,” she recalls.
Nargiza noted that catching a wolf is not an easy task, as these animals are very cautious, and a hunter's mistake can lead to dangerous consequences. “The wolf I caught, which can be seen in the video, I caught about 3–4 years ago. It was done in just one day. At that time, wolves were constantly attacking livestock in the summer pastures. I followed the tracks, traced its path, and set the trap so that it was inconspicuous: I buried it level with the ground and covered it with a thin layer of soil. Returning home in the evening, the next morning, right after the morning prayer, I went to check. When I arrived at the site, the trap was gone — it became clear that the wolf had been caught and dragged it away with it,” Nargiza recounts.
She added that she was able to track the predator by the footprints left near the water. “When I returned home, I informed my family that the wolf was caught, and we all went to the site together. I pressed the animal's head to the ground with a special fork-like stick, while my brother-in-law [“kayyn ini”] threw a noose over its mouth. This way, we managed to catch the wolf alive,” Nargiza shares the details.
Furthermore, she noted that the behavior of the wolf depends on which paw gets caught in the trap: if it’s a hind paw, the animal desperately tries to escape, but if it’s a front paw, its chances of fleeing are almost zero.
