500 Tenge Northern Hawk Owl

Kazakhstan's wildlife coin program, launched in earnest through the 2000s, was partly a revenue play on the global commemorative market and partly a genuine conservation signaling effort during a period when the country was aggressively repositioning its international image following Soviet-era ecological disasters — the Aral Sea collapse chief among them. The Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) ranges across the boreal forests of northern Kazakhstan, one of the few owls that hunts by day.

KM#205 is a standard one-troy-ounce .925 silver issue with a mintage kept low enough to sustain secondary market premiums.