In the remote mountains of north-western Mongolia, a teenage girl is her family's sole hope of keeping an ancient tradition alive.

Akbota Baitilkarib, 14, petite and shy, is training to become a golden eagle hunter.

With perhaps as few as 60 authentic eagle hunters left, it's feared the tradition could die out within a generation. So Akbota is taking on a weighty responsibility in trying to save it.

In her conservative community, where most girls marry young and stick to child-rearing and household chores, Akbota is breaking boundaries.

"Of course girls can do anything the boys do," she tells Foreign Correspondent.

"We're resilient, and if you never give up, you can do anything."

Her parents are backing her all the way.

Golden eagle hunter Akbota Baitilkarib and her father Orken ( ABC News )

"The idea that women can only do domestic chores is ancient," her schoolteacher mother Takhau Oser says.

"In today's world, girls need to be hardy and be competitive with boys — that's why I don't agree with that old thinking."

Akbota takes some inspiration from another teenage girl hunter, Aisholpan — star of the international hit documentary The Eagle Huntress.

But Akbota has been training for three years and following hunts for six — long before the movie shot Aisholpan to fame.

Akbota's three older brothers have all gone to the distant city for education and work. So it's up to her to assume the mantle of her eagle hunter dad Orken.

When Foreign Correspondent films Akbota at training, her eagle looks almost as big as her. It weighs close to eight kilograms, and sometimes she struggles with it.

There are as few as 60 authentic eagle hunters left. ( ABC News )

But in a couple of years Orken expects she can be a fully-fledged hunter, taking her golden eagle high into wintry mountains to bring down foxes, marmots and rabbits.

"She is making good progress so that makes me proud. And I'm happy for her because she loves this very much," he says.

"I want to encourage girls like Akbota and Aishalpan. They're going the right way."

Introducing hunting culture to world

Mongolian eagle hunters use the birds to catch animals such as foxes and rabbits. ( ABC News )

The girls face resistance from old-timers like Khabyl Khakh — a weather-beaten veteran of 50 years of winter hunts in isolated steppes and valleys.

"There have never been any eagle huntresses," he says.

"In the past, women didn't go up the mountain. They got married and moved away. Being an eagle huntress is just a passing thing."

The eagle hunters are Kazakhs. Many are nomads. They are clinging to their hunting culture in this corner of Mongolia; in neighbouring Kazakhstan the tradition was lost under Soviet rule.

Older hunters fear their tradition is doomed. But there are youngsters, male and female, who are fighting to keep it alive.

"My plan is to teach coming generations about how to train hunting eagles," Akbota says.

"I also want to introduce our hunting culture to the world.

"If I'm brave and determined, I'll keep doing this — after all, this is a Kazakh national treasure. I want to do my part and teach others to let it live on."

The Kazakh eagle hunters survived in Mongolia after the tradition was eradicated in Soviet-era Kazakhstan ( ABC News )

The Last Eagle Hunters airs on Foreign Correspondent at 9.30pm on ABC TV.