A grouse, singing in sunlight, a black bear, trophies won at international exhibitions, diplomas, petroglyphs, showing the most ancient human occupation – you can see all that at the exhibition of hunting trophies, which opened at the National museum on September 16. This date was not selected at random; on the eve of the republican holiday of animal herdsmen, hunting trophies can show like nothing else how the herdsmen live here in the old ways just like many centuries ago. At the opening, the Chairman of the Government of Republic Tyva, Sholban Kara-ool, said: “Today we have the opportunity to see what hunting means to the people of international Tuva. We are proud of our endless expanse of space, that we have almost 16 thousand hectares of hunting areas. This means that we have a wide scope to occupy ourselves, together with many other activities, with this truly manly sport. Today, at this exhibition, multiple winners of competitions of Russia are present, which are held among those who own many hunting trophies. This fact yet again confirms not just our resources, but it also bears witness to the attractiveness of Tuva as a region which has a tremendous tourist potential.
The exhibition was organized on the initiative of the State committee of RT on hunting and fishing, and it is dedicated to 65th anniversary of hunting regulation of Tuva. Its leader, Alexander Novikov, in his welcoming speech thanked the Ministry of culture and tourism and the National museum for the opportunity to place one of the most interesting exhibitions specifically here, where the most of the “attractions” of the republic are located.
There are people in all the districts of Tuva who live in the traditional way of indigenous people, including hunting. Many of them get hunting trophies only because they live according to the traditional laws of their ancestors: hunt, but do not exterminate.
- It is precisely thanks to the traditions, observation of rituals, and living in harmony with our surrounding world, that our ancestors were able to leave such rich nature for us,” emphasized Sholban Kara-ool. We have to give serious thought to more ways of increasing these riches, while at the same time turning hunting and fishing into a type of activity that can result in increased income for municipal budgets.”
The variety of exhibits brings clear evidence that taiga or steppe hunting can increase the tourist attractiveness of the republic the state inspector of the department of protection Adygzhy Salchak told us during the excursion about the huge hunting resources here. There are 12 species of main fur-bearing animals, 6 species of wild hoofed animals, and more than 360 species of birds.
The staff of the museum greatly contributed to the preparation of the exhibition. They gave themselves this task: the exhibition should not just show the beauty and power of the hunting trophies. It should also become a step in the transition from hunting as “meat supply” direction to the direction of selective hunting and forming highly productive populations of game animals.
