The blue washbasin which smashed over Alan Parrot's back in April, crushing two of his vertebrae, is still lying in a corner of his apartment in Ulan Bator. 'I guess these guys want me to leave,' says Mr Parrot pointing to it with a small smile. 'But I am the one the corrupt guys fear the worst. This is the epicentre of falcon smuggling in the world and I intend to clean it up.' Despite losing six centimetres in height and being paralysed for 18 days, the blue-eyed American still strikes an imposing figure often dressed in white from head to toe.
This convert to Sikhism who wears a turban has spent five years trying to smash what he believes is a conspiracy involving corrupt Mongolian officials and Arab smugglers that threatens the survival of many species.
Mr Parrot has been involved in falcons since his childhood and began training these birds of prey at the court of the Shah of Iran more than 20 years ago when he was just 18. Like medieval kings, the favourite sport of oil-rich sheikhs and emirs of the Arabian Gulf is to go hunting in the desert with swift falcon on their arms.
Wealthy Gulf rulers and their followers fly out each year together with their birds to the deserts of Pakistan to hunt their favourite prey, the Lesser MacQueen's Bustard, whose cooked flesh is said to act as an aphrodisiac. The bustard has been hunted to extinction on the Arabian peninsular.
Birds like peregrines or Saker falcons are a coveted status symbol, and the sheikhs look abroad for the fiercest and fastest. Wild birds are most desirable because domestic breed birds are said to lack killer instincts and honed hunting skills.
'They are as valuable as thoroughbred horses. We are talking about feathered cocaine,' Mr Parrot says.