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Palani Mohan is a photographer who has captured astounding images of the Altai Kazakh eagle hunters: a small community based in Mongolia who use eagles to find and hunt their prey.

Mohan first became intrigued with the Altai Kazakh eagle hunters when he found an image in a newspaper. "I saw a picture of a man standing on top of a mountain in a faraway place with a golden eagle in his hand. It was an incredible image, I've never forgotten that photograph."

Upon arrival, he became aware of the culture and story of the eagle hunters. "I just wanted to photograph these guys. But soon after I got there I realized there was a bigger story there that needed to be told."

Decades later, Maloni received an e-mail notification about a flight route from Hong Kong -- where he is currently based -- to Mongolia. "I just took off with very little planning, and just went. I didn't really know what the story was and why I was going there."

According to Mohan, there are very few "real" eagle hunters alive today. "They're getting old, and each winter claims a few more."

"I thought, wouldn't it be great to go and try to photograph all of them. So that was really the anchor of the project really, that was the reason why I wanted to do it."

Mongolia hosts several eagle festivals, and there are opportunities to photograph men with golden eagles at these events, but according to Mohan these are not true eagle hunters. "Just because you have an eagle doesn't mean you're an eagle hunter."

Mohan points out that real eagle hunters would actually avoid these festivals out of concern for their eagles. "They don't want to put their eagles through the hardships of bringing it to a very noise-polluted environment, so they don't even turn up."

Instead, he has to go to them. "I spent a long time researching and trying to find who they are. I lived with many of them."

The majority of eagle hunting takes place during winter months, so in order to capture these moments Mohan had to endure harsh conditions. "It's brutally beautiful but a brutally harsh environment."

"My hands were frozen, my feet were just a mess. I'm from Madras in India, I'm not built for the cold climate and I'm mainly a vegetarian. I was all kind of wrong for this project. That was part of the challenge."

But for Mohan, enduring the ruthless conditions was wroth the opportunity to capture these eagle hunters in their natural environment. "I hope people understand that people like this still live and it's not just something from a museum."

But Mohan is concerned about how long the eagle hunters will last. "The young generation don't really want to be eagle hunters anymore. They want to wear jeans, listen to music, go to the capital -- all the things teenagers want."

"It really is a privilege to be allowed into their homes and their life and I made friends. They found me incredibly eccentric, they didn't understand who I was, why I kept leaving my family and coming back to the cold."

"I hope that when I return with a copy of the book, I'll get it translated to Kazakh, and then maybe they will get a better understanding on why I was there all this time."

Capturing the art of the last eagle hunters of Mongolia

Story highlights

Photographer Palani Mohan spent five years documenting the last remaining Altai Kazakh eagle hunters

There are only 50-60 "true" eagle hunters remaining in the region

He has produced a photo essay and a new book, titled "Hunting with Eagles: In the Realm of the Mongolian Kazakhs", featuring the body of work

CNN —

In the wild mountains of western Mongolia, where temperatures drop to -40°F in winter, only the toughest survive. India-born, Australia-raised photographer Palani Mohan discovered this the hard way, when he embarked on an ambitious project to document the last remaining Altai Kazakh eagle hunters.

“There are only 50-60 of what I regard to be the true eagle hunters still alive. They’re getting old, and each winter claims a few more,” Palani tells CNN.

The Altai Kazakhs are thought to be unique in their hunting tradition.

First, the hunter treks up a mountain on horseback, holding his golden eagle. From the ridge, they wait and watch. When prey is spotted – usually a fox - the hunter charges towards it, and the eagle goes in for the kill.

The Altai Kazakh hunters use eagles to hunt prey

Palani Mohan was 17 and living in Sydney when he first saw one of these eagle hunters wearing a fox-skin coat in a newspaper. The image stayed with him.

Decades later when he was living in Hong Kong, he received a discount offer on a flight to Mongolia.

“I just took off, with very little planning,” he says. “Soon after I got there I realized there was a bigger story there, one that needed to be told.”

In a project spanning five years, Mohan visited four times, spending more than a month there each time, often living with the hunters themselves.

“Many times the only reason I returned was because I got so ill,” he says. “My hands were frozen, my feet were a mess. I had an incredibly difficult time keeping my camera batteries warm. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

Mohan was often forced to return due to illness that was brought on from the harsh conditions

As well as battling the extreme conditions, Mohan was also dealing with the unpredictability of the eagles.

“The eagles don’t sit for you, they are wild birds,” he said. “I was missing images all the time. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing a shot, then it disappears like water on a hot marble plate.”

The eagles are often in motion, which made timing the perfect image a difficult task

Despite the challenges, Mohan produced a photo essay comprising 90 breathtaking images, displayed in a new book. They tell a story of a beautiful yet brutal landscape, a strong and hardy breed of hunters and the remarkable bond they develop with their eagles.

The photographs are given an added sense of depth and mystery by their dramatic duotone, an effect which Mohan says was deliberate.

“The other-worldliness of these images meant they deserved to be photographed in black and white,” he said. “Also, there wasn’t much color. The landscape was brown, the eagle was dark grey, the hunters’ clothing was dark, and they had dark weathered faces, which work really well in black and white.”

With only 50-60 true eagle hunters remaining, Mohan hopes to chronicle their culture

As well as producing a body of art, Mohan’s aim was also to bring the subjects to life, and to chronicle their culture before it becomes too late.

“I hope people understand that people still live this way and it’s not just something from a museum,” he says. “But it’s changing and evolving, and the younger generation don’t really want to be eagle hunters.”

Mohan hopes he can return to the mountains soon, to show his new friends the visual legacy they will soon leave behind.

“They found me incredibly eccentric, they didn’t understand why I kept coming back to the cold, leaving my family in Hong Kong,” he says. “But I hope that when I return with a copy of the book, translated into Kazakh, maybe they will get a better understanding.”