The Gulf is on a multi-million dollar falcon shopping spree, with two prized birds trading for eye-watering prices in Abu Dhabi this week. Bred on the same American farm, an ultra-white gyrfalcon chick went for 1.1 million dirhams ($300,000) while a pure-white gyr fetched 1.5 million dirhams. In Riyadh, the breeders’ auction closed last month with a 1.3 million riyal ($346,000) Canadian-bred chick.
Bedouins once flew the region’s birds of prey to put meat on the table. Today they come from specialist farms, get their own seats on commercial flights, and can win back their price on a racing circuit worth tens of millions of riyals. Spending picks up ahead of the hunting season that opens in October. Its prize quarry, the houbara bustard that Gulf nationals pay $100,000 to hunt in Pakistan’s deserts, is valued for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities.