frequently asked questions about camels, feral camels in
TRANSCRIPT
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Frequently asked questions about camels, feral camels in Australia and the Australian Feral Camel Management Project.
This document is an archive of content that was held on the Australian Feral Camel
Management website, 2010–2013. The site is now closed. Further information can be found at
http://www.nintione.com.au/business/natural-resource-management/australian-feral-camel.
Contents
1. Why are camels a problem? 2. What is the Australian Feral Camel Management Project doing about this problem? 3. What is the government doing about feral camels? 4. Who is Ninti One Limited? 5. What is the Draft National Feral Camel Action Plan doing? 6. Are feral camel numbers really increasing? 7. Isn't it cruel to kill feral camels? 8. Are you trying to kill all the feral camels? 9. Why don't they make pet food out of camel meat? 10. Why don't they export camels to the Middle East? 11. How much greenhouse gas do camels produce? 12. How can I be involved in the management of feral camels? 13. Where are feral camels being managed? 14. Who can be a culler? 15. Why don't we eat more camel meat in Australia? 16. Why can't we just sterilise the camels and stop them breeding? 17. What is the gestation period for camels? 18. What products can you make from camels? 19. Can we move camels away from where people live? 20. There aren't any camels - what are you spending the money on? 21. Why is a research organisation like DKCRC involved in culling camels?
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1. Why are camels a problem?
Camels played an important role in the development of Central Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The advent of motorised transport resulted in most of the domesticated camels being released into the wild and a feral population has emerged. Feral camels were able to breed unchecked as they have no natural predators, and they inhabit large tracts of sparsely populated, semi-arid and arid areas and are therefore largely 'invisible.' Feral camels have a low mortality rate, generally only dying from 'old age' or in prolonged drought events. Over time the feral camels have increased to such an extent that their numbers were estimated to be in the vicinity of 1 million in 2008. With the effects of extremely dry conditions on the feral camel population in 2009, combined with culling under the Australian Feral Camel Management Project, and improved aerial survey data, the current population estimate is to be lower. However, the issue is not so much the large number of animals but the damage they cause, particularly where densities are high.
Feral camels roam across an area of 3.3 million square kilometres of rangeland that incorporates many different tenures: Aboriginal Lands, pastoral and mining leases, conservation lands and other Crown Land. They cause damage to infrastructure, sites of biological and cultural significance and communities. Feral camels eat almost anything, although they do have preferences.
Being herd animals, camels move around in groups. A herd of females and young can number in the tens to the hundreds. There are smaller herds of young males, and adult males tend to be solitary. Group size is very dependent on the breeding season and on conditions; in dry seasons they congregate in large numbers, sometimes into the thousands, around watering points. This causes huge stress on available water sources, upon which native animals also rely.
Damage caused by camels to infrastructure, property and people has been estimated at around $5.5 million a year. Physical damage includes to fences, yards, water troughs, tanks, bores, buildings, airconditioning units and windmills; while vehicle accidents caused by camels have resulted in deaths and serious injury.
Feral camels impact on livestock production through competition for food and water resources at an estimated cost of around $3.5 million per year.
Direct control and management costs are estimated at over $2.5 million per year.
Damage to the environment includes:
• To vegetation through feeding behaviour (browse on trees) and trampling, resulting in erosion
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• Local extinction of populations of preferred species such as the quandong (Santalum acuminatum), bean tree (Erythrina vespertillo) and curly pod wattle (Acacia sessiliceps)
• To wetlands through fouling, trampling and subsequent sedimentation • Competition with native animals for food, water and shelter • Contribution to greenhouse gas emissions
Damage to social/cultural values
• Damage to sites of cultural significance for Aboriginal people, such as water places (water holes, rock holes, soaks, springs, etc). Many of these sites are sacred, and damage to them constitutes damage to the social and cultural life of Aboriginal people
• Destruction of sources of bush tucker • Reduction in enjoyment of natural areas • General nuisance and causing hazards for drivers.
It is also possible that feral camels could be involved in the spread of diseases such as bluetongue, Rinderpest, Rift Valley fever, surra (trypanosomosis) and bovine tuberculosis if there were outbreaks of these diseases in Australia (Brown 2004; Rober Henzell 2008, SA Animal and Plant Control Group, pers.comm.).
Quantifiable cost to the Australian community (not including to the environment or in greenhouse emissions) is in the order of $10 million per year.
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2. What is the Australian Feral Camel Project doing about this problem?
This project has been set up to humanely reduce the overabundance of feral camels, and therefore the densities of camels in areas of known high concentrations and of high conservation and cultural value. Management methods being used include ground culling for petmeat, mustering for sale (mainly for meat processing) and culling. Exclusion fencing has limited potential due to construction and maintenance costs and aesthetic issues around cultural and tourist sites.
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In addition, the project is undertaking a significant monitoring and evaluation program (MERI: Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Improvement) to measure and report on improvements to biodiversity outcomes for the land, restoration of vegetation and water resources.
The project's activities support the National Feral Camel Action Plan.
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3. What is the government doing about feral camels?
On 4 November 2010, the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council endorsed the National Feral Camel Action Plan as a national plan for an Established Pest of National Significance in accordance with the Australian Pest Animal Strategy. The Australian Government has also provided funding to Ninti One Ltd to implement the Australian Feral Camel Management Project in collaboration with partners. State and Federal governments have supported the investigation of of commercial use options to support feral camel management.
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4. Who is Ninti One Ltd?
Ninti One Ltd is a national not-for-profit company that aims to build opportunities for people living in remote Australia through research, research application and outreach. It is the management company for a number of projects, including the Australian Feral Camel Management Project (AFCMP), the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) and the Intellectual Property derived from the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC), which conducted research on feral camels in Australia from 2005–2008, resulting in a series of ground-breaking reports (reports 47–54). Subsequently, Ninti One applied to the Australian Government Caring for our Country Program for funds to implement a management strategy based on the research results. This application was funded in late 2009 and Ninti One now runs the Australian Feral Camel Management Project in association with its 20 partner organisations.
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5. What is the National Feral Camel Action Plan doing?
The National Feral Camel Action Plan is a national strategy for the management of feral camels in Australia now and into the future.
Vision The National Feral Camel Action Plan has been developed in response to the increasing number of camels, their increasing damage to the Australian rangelands and the need for a nationally coordinated approach to dealing with these issues. The vision for the plan is 'comprehensive, coordinated management of camels and their impacts that maintains and promotes the biodiversity, agricultural assets and social values of the rangelands for all Australians.'
Why a national plan? The current management of camels is largely ad hoc and is fragmented by jurisdictional and tenure boundaries. Consequently, camel management to date has failed to provide a strategic and risk-based approach upon which local, regional and state based management can be undertaken.
In order to develop a strategic and risk-based approach to camel management, an overarching emphasis has to be placed on the mitigation of the impacts of camels at appropriate scales rather than simply reducing camel numbers.
However, as there is a positive relationship between camel density and degree of damage, reducing camel numbers is an important strategy in achieving damage mitigation. Further, management of the current feral camel population requires immediate effort by all - governments, industries, land managers and the various stakeholder communities.
This can only be achieved by providing a framework at a national level, as:
• the current large population of camels occurs over a very large range • camels are highly mobile and are able to move over large distances in relatively short time
periods • camels occur in very remote areas that are sparsely populated by humans • there are differing perceptions on feral camels and their impacts • camels are considered to be both a pest and a resource and on occasion an ‘icon'.
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Key outcomes The Plan identifies four key outcomes:
• development of the Australian and international community's understanding of, and support for the management of feral camels and their impacts
• amelioration of the negative impacts of feral camels by addressing the current over-abundance of feral camels through the immediate and substantial reduction in their numbers across the rangelands
• adoption of a platform for the on-going long-term management of camels • development of partnerships and social capacities for camel management into the future.
In order to achieve significant reduction of the negative impacts of the camel population, all governments, landowners and holders, communities and individuals will have to work together towards a common goal of ‘comprehensive, coordinated management of camels and their impacts that maintains and promotes the biodiversity, agricultural assets and social values of the rangelands for all Australians.’
The National Feral Camel Action Plan has been developed to meet this need by providing a strategic and risk-based approach upon which local, regional and state based management can be undertaken. The substantial number of stakeholders who will need to be involved in the implementation of the Plan may have some conflicting interests, especially when seeking to generate economic returns from removing camels from the landscape where markets to help do so are limited.
Aboriginal communities are concerned about cultural as well as aesthetic, practical and physical dimensions of camel impacts. Attitudes to camels are not homogenous even within communities and many Aboriginal people value the potential they believe camels might provide for meaningful and productive activity.
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6. Are feral camel numbers really increasing?
• Between 1880 and 1907 up to 20,000 camels were imported into Australia • In 1920, register records give the number of captive camels as 12,649 • In 1941, register records give the number of captive camels as fewer than 2,300
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• Over the 1920s and 1930s, many camels were released into the bush: between 1920 and 1941 it is possible that between 5,000 and 10,000 were released
• Between 1940 and 1966, the population was not monitored • In 1966, the estimate was 15 000–20 000 feral camels across outback Australia (McKnight
1969) • Between 1980 and 1983, Short et al. (1988) produced a minimum population estimate of
43,000 camels in a broad belt-like distribution through central Australia from Broome in Western Australia to western Queensland
• In 2001, the minimum national population estimate was about 300,000 camels (Edwards et al. 2004)
• In 2006, the minimum estimate was about 730,000 camels Ward et al. (2006) • In 2008, the minimum population estimate was just under one million. Feral camels are now
broadly distributed across about 50% of the Australia rangelands. The wild dog fence currently provides an effective barrier limiting the spread of feral camels into suitable areas of New South Wales and Queensland
• With the effects of extremely dry conditions on the feral camel population in 2009, combined with commercial use and culling under the Australian Feral Camel Management Project, and improved aerial survey data, the current population estimate is lower.
(From Saalfeld and Edwards 2008 and see also Saalfeld and Edwards 2010 on The Rangeland Journal site
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7. Isn't it cruel to kill feral camels?
The highest standards of animal welfare and humaneness are followed as set out in various state and national legislation and regulations.
Some websites below offer further information:
Animal Welfare http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare
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International Animal Welfare links http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare/links/international
Australian Animal Welfare Strategy http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare/aaws
The Australian Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals - The Camel has been adopted under state legislation and contains information, guidelines and standards to assist people to meet their duty of care in respect of the capture, handling and transport of camels.
In addition, a national set of Codes of Practice (COPSs) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been developed specifically in relation to the humane management of feral camels through activities such as culling. Audits are performed under the project to ensure humane removal.
In drought conditions camels die from starvation and dehydration, generally around any remaining water sources. They trample each other to get to water which results in animals drowning in water holes and rock holes and being further trampled. Controlling the numbers decreases the pressure on the landscape in dry conditions and will hopefully result in fewer camels dying very cruelly due to starvation, dehydration and trampling.
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8. Are you trying to kill all the feral camels?
No. Eradication is not the goal, and it could never be achieved in any case. The immediate goal is to reduce the density of feral camels to a level where their negative impacts are within acceptable limits. In the longer term, the goal is to maintain low densities of wild camels through ongoing management consistent with pastoral land management, conservation and cultural heritage values, including removing and domesticating wild camels for introduction to pastoral management programs.
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9. Why don't they make pet food out of camel meat?
Feral camels have been used for pet meat in some areas of the NT and WA. Many ideas have been put forward but it is a matter of financial viability for each scheme given the distances involved and the subsequent costs of transport, storage, manpower and the availability of markets.
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10. Why don't they export camels to the Middle East?
In order to export live camels to any country there must be a bilateral trade agreement in place, between the Australian Government, represented by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the government of the potential importing country. The bilateral agreement covers all aspects of the management of live animals from mustering, holding, feed-lotting, shipment conditions, then how they are treated, including slaughtering conditions once they have been off-loaded in the receiving country.
All viable proposals to export camels to the Middle East will be carefully considered. Where there is a market and this is possible, it may be a good solution for a relatively small reduction in camel densities. The total number of camels exported live from 1988 to 2007 was 4,761, an average of approximately 250 head annually. In 2007 this figure was 363 head. The majority (77%) were exported to South-East Asia, with most going to Malaysia; the rest were exported to the Middle East and America (Zeng & McGregor 2008 p. 239). The numbers exported have remained small; there are no long-term supply agreements in place, and sales occur on an ad hoc basis. There is therefore no incentive for companies and individual landholders to invest in infrastructure (p. 240).
There have been numerous attempts to develop both a live-export trade and a meat industry based on feral camels, but these have failed to generate enough capital to make the industry sustainable in the long-term.
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11. How much greenhouse gas do camels produce?
According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change) (1977, p. 4.10), camels' enteric fermentation emissions are 46kgs/animal, which is equivalent to 0.97 t/animal4A7 of CO2e per year. More information about this is available from Drucker 2008 pp. 10-11.
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12. How can I be involved in the management of feral camels?
The Australian Feral Camel Management Project is a major logistical exercise, involving expert teams of people using sophisticated equipment and all following Standard Operating Procedures which incorporate strict safety protocols. Generally there is little scope for the general public to be involved in on-ground management. The opportunistic shooting of feral camels by members of the public is not condoned on the grounds that large-calibre firearms are required to humanely kill a camel. In addition, landholders are generally not comfortable with firearms being used on their land without their permission, including along public roads which traverse their land.
If landholders or commercial use operators believe they can meet the below investment guidelines for the Australian Feral Camel Management Project, they should contact the Project Manager at [email protected] .
Summary feral camel removal investment guidelines under the Australian Feral Camel Management Project:
The Australian Feral Camel Management Project aims to protect biodiversity refuges and critical aquatic habitats, and to improve soil management in rangeland regions, mainly through reducing feral camel density in priority areas (see the 2009-10 Caring for our Country Business Plan at www.nrm.gov.au for more information).
To ensure adequate oversight of the safety and humaneness of operations, feral camel removal methods under the Project have been limited to: aerial shooting (using trained government shooters); commercial use (mustering for human consumption and ground shooting for petmeat); and government-coordinated ground shooting.
The area and method of feral camel removal under the Project will be guided by:
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• proximity to priority environmental assets • feral camel densities (based on good intelligence of same) • landholder preferences (once they have been properly informed of the pros and cons of
various removal options) • relative cost-effectiveness of removal operations and supporting activities • ability of method to achieve high-level camel density reduction (including culling of
non-commercial animals in the case of commercial use methods) • cash/in-kind support from landholders and other stakeholders • timeliness of removal activities, recognising the limited timeframe to achieve Project
objectives • compliance with relevant Codes of Practice and Standard Operating Procedures and ability
to verify compliance and numbers of camels removed • avoiding unacceptable levels of environmental and infrastructure (e.g. to tracks) damage by
the removal operations • the extent to which the funding support will help improve long-term capacity to maintain low
feral camel densities around priority environmental assets. Landholders and outback travelers can also play a valuable role by reporting feral camel sightings, damage and control activities through the CamelScan website.
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13. Where are feral camels currently being managed?
Work is underway in three control areas that represent different types of tenure (i.e. pastoral property, conservation land, unallocated Crown Land and Aboriginal lands) in three different areas that have a high density of feral camels.
This approach will provide information about the best control method, as well as a greater understanding of their watering and feeding habits and movement patterns. The feral camel density targets at priority environmental sites are shown in the table below:
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State/ territory
Asset (complete list from Funding Deed)
Associated high-intensity camel removal area (that will directly or indirectly affect density in buffer zone around asset)
2010 density across 100km buffer zone (camels per sq km as extrapolated from cumulative survey data)
Proposed target density within 50km buffer (camels per sq km)
Proposed target density within 100km buffer (camels per sq km)
On-ground monitoring of asset condition
SA Dalhousie Springs
Simpson 0.25-1.0 <0.1 <0.5 Y
Goyders Lagoon
Simpson 0.1-0.5 <0.1 <0.25 N
Lake Eyre Simpson 0-1.0 <0.25 <0.5 N
Lake Eyre Mound Springs
Simpson 0-1.0 <0.25 <0.5 N
Serpentine Lakes
SG Corner <0.1-1.0 <0.25 <0.5 N
Algebuckina Waterhole
Simpson 0.25-1.0 <0.25 <0.5 N
NT Hay River Simpson 0.1-1.0 <0.1 <0.5 Y
Western MacDonnell Ranges
SG Corner 0-1.0 <0.1 <0.5 N
George Gill Ranges
SG Corner 0.25-2.0 <0.25 <1.0 N
Uluru and Kata Tjuta
SG Corner 0.5-2.0 <0.1 <1.0 N
Petermann Ranges
SG Corner 0.25->2.0 <0.25 <1.0 Y
Western Finke River
SG Corner 0.1-1.0 <0.1 <0.5 N
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State/ territory
Asset (complete list from Funding Deed)
Associated high-intensity camel removal area (that will directly or indirectly affect density in buffer zone around asset)
2010 density across 100km buffer zone (camels per sq km as extrapolated from cumulative survey data)
Proposed target density within 50km buffer (camels per sq km)
Proposed target density within 100km buffer (camels per sq km)
On-ground monitoring of asset condition
Catchment pools
Glen Helen Mound Spring
SG Corner 0-1.0 <0.1 <1.0 N
WA Rudall River Pilbara 0.1-0.5 <0.1 <0.25 Y
De Grey River
Pilbara <0.1 <0.1 <0.1 N
Mandora salt marsh
Pilbara 0-0.25 <0.1 <0.1 N
Qld Channel Country
Simpson 0-0.5 <0.1 <0.25 Y
Bulloo River and Lake
Simpson <0.1 <0.1 <0.1 N
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14. Who can be a culler?
Aerial culling is carried out using helicopters with a pilot and a culler, with a fixed-wing plane sometimes being used to spot for animals. Pilots must be accredited operators with considerable experience, and only government employed and sanctioned cullers will be used in each jurisdiction until there is final agreement on an accreditation scheme across the country. The Vertebrate Pests Committee is currently investigating this issue.
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15. Why don't we eat more camel meat in Australia?
Human consumption of camel meat in Australia is limited. The situation is the same for pet food. The main reason for this is that people are not used to camel meat products. In order to increase human consumption, a major marketing strategy would be needed to demonstrate the benefits of camel
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meat and encourage Australians to try it. An additional consideration is financial viability: the distances involved are great, costs of transport for camels are very high because camels are large animals and cannot be transported in tiers as cattle can, and there are subsequent storage costs.
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16. Why can't we just sterilise the camels and stop them breeding?
Fertility control is the holy grail when it comes to pest animal management. It potentially offers a means to reduce populations of pest animals, particularly those with high reproductive rates, and the impacts they have without killing individuals. However, despite a large degree of research effort having been expended in this area over the past 20 years in Australia and overseas, there are very few practical management outcomes as a result. Research to manage both rabbits and foxes in Australia using fertility control have not been successful (McLeod et al. 2010).
Nevertheless, research is continuing in this area. Four new technologies are being developed that hold prospects for effective fertility management in a range of species in some situations, including camels (Lapidge et al. 2008 and 2010). Their advantages include being target specific (no or low risk to other animals in the same environment, such as cattle and sheep), and the potential to sterilise or provide long-term contraception (>5 years).
However, because camels are a long-lived species with a low reproductive rate and occur in remote areas, fertility control is likely to be a highly inefficient form of population control (Pople and McLeod 2010). Adult survival has the greatest influence on population growth in feral camels (Pople and McLeod 2010). The implication of this is that management to reduce impacts at landscape scales through population reduction should focus on reducing adult survival and this cannot be achieved with fertility control. There are also other things which would limit the effectiveness of fertility control at the landscape scale, including the need for >50% of female camels to be sterilised and the need for repeated administration, consumption, or exposure where synthetic hormones or contraceptive vaccines are used.
Fertility control methods will not help us to deal with the immediate problem of reducing the current overabundance of feral camels. It is unlikely that the substantial technological hurdles will be overcome in the near future (Pople and McLeod 2010). However, they may have application in the longer term in small-scale situations. (back to top)
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17. What is the gestation period for camels?
Gestation period is variable depending upon location, with a range of 336–405 days, but mostly around 370±5 days.
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18. What products can you make from camels?
(this section taken directly from Zeng & McGregor 2008, pp 227–29).
Camel meat Camels are used mainly for their meat, both for humans and for pets. Camel steak has protein levels similar to beef and has significantly less fat than lamb and chicken which have eight times more fat, and pork chops which have 14 times more fat than a camel steak. Camel steak also contains less cholesterol: 61 mg of cholesterol per 100 g of uncooked camel meat compared with 70 mg, 130 mg, and 100 mg for beef, lamb chops and chicken meat respectively.
Camel milk Camel milk has been produced in Africa for hundreds of years. There has recently been significant interest in camel dairy products in South East Asian countries as a result of reports that camel milk is a good source of protein and Vitamin C, and is much more nutritious and has more therapeutic value than the milk of any other animal (Inayat & Farooq 2005). It has been reported that camels produce milk comparable in quality and taste to that of cattle. While slightly saltier than cow's milk, camel milk is highly nutritious. Produced by animals that can live in some of the toughest environments, it has three times the Vitamin C as cow's milk and is also known to be rich in iron, unsaturated fatty acids, and B vitamins. Camel milk stays fresh much longer than cow's milk. In times of drought, camels continue to lactate long after goats, sheep, and cows have stopped. A lactating camel can produce 4–12 l of milk a day, but may, under intensive conditions, produce between 15–20 l per animal per day (Haddad 2006). Research indicates that camels, intensively managed in the same way as dairy cows, produce a high quality product.
Medicine Camel milk, meat and urine have been used for medicinal purposes in many countries. The medicinal properties of camel products were known to Arab physicians centuries ago (Haddad 2006). Early in the sixteenth century one of most well-known medicinal encyclopaedias in China
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recorded in detail the medicinal value of camel products (Li 1596). This traditional knowledge has been respected, improved, and applied in modern medical practice.
A large number of studies have been conducted into the medicinal value of camel products. It is thought that camel milk and urine contain the diuretic and liver-strengthening properties of the wild herbs they prefer to eat, such as rosemary, thyme, wormwood, and southernwood (Haddad 2006).
Camel milk has been used to cure diseases caused by chronic imbalance of the liver, such as jaundice, oedema, and swelling of the belly (Haddad 2006). Recent research reveals that raw camel milk contains insulin-like proteins that can bypass the stomach and be absorbed intact (Agrawal et al. 2005). This characteristic of camel milk could be exploited to help control diabetes in isolated Aboriginal settlements and perhaps to develop pharmaceutical products. Scientists in Israel and Sweden are currently investigating camel milk and its potential benefits to the pharmaceutical industry. Other research indicates that camel milk has a positive effect on children with severe food allergies. The effects are rapid and long lasting, although much research still needs to be done on the healing effects of the milk (Shabo et al. 2005). In India, camel milk is used therapeutically against oedema, jaundice, problems of the spleen, tuberculosis, asthma, anaemia, tuberculosis, and haemorrhoids (piles), and also used for improvement of bone formation (Yagil 1982). In Russia and Kazakhstan, doctors often prescribe camel milk to convalescing patients (Haddad 2006).
Camel meat has been used since the late sixteenth century in traditional Chinese medicine. Camel meat is used to improve resistance to diseae, to strengthen the muscles and bones, to moisten the skin, and to relieve internal pain. The fat extracted from the camel's hump is used to effectively relieve pain and swelling (Li 1596; Encyclopedia 1990). Many Chinese restaurants serve, or plan to serve, their customers camel meat. Although camel meat is not commonly consumed in many parts of China, people are increasingly interested in tasting the meat (Liu 2006). In Australia, the National Heart Foundation has endorsed camel meat (Ellard & Seidel 2000).
Camel urine is also used as a medicine in some countries. It was a standard prescription in Arabic medicine and still remains a staple of Bedouin natural remedies, as a diuretic, snuff, and delousing hair wash; it has also been endorsed by mainstream modern medicine (Haddad 2006). The active constituents of these camel products are unknown despite the fact that many parts and products of the camel are currently being used for medicinal purposes.
If an industry is to develop around these products in Australia, then more research is needed into these medicinal properties, the usefulness of camel products in the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and the size of potential markets in Australia and internationally.
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Other products and uses Camel hides, hair, and wool can also be utilised commercially. Camel hides are used for making footwear, fashion accessories, luggage, garments, and bed covers. The average skin size of a six-year old Australian camel ranges between 1.6 and 2.8 m2. Skin thickness varies from 2.5 mm at the belly to 6 mm at the ridge. The camel leather has a high tensile strength (MacNamara et al. 2003). The production of wool and hair by adult camels ranges from 1 kg (El-Amin 1979) to 5 kg (Keikin 1976). Wool is shed at the end of winter. If the wool is not gathered, the animal rubs itself against trees and bushes until the wool is shed. Camel wool is used for making padded cloth, quilts, and as a mattress filler. In addition to wool, Dromedary camels produce long hair that can be shorn and used for making clothes, tents, carpets, robes, saddle-girths, and blankets (El-Amin 1979). Camels are used for tourism worldwide, especially in desert areas.
In Australia there are about 50 camel tourism operations (see Edwards, Zeng & Saalfeld 2008), the most famous example being the camel ride offered at Cable Beach near Broome in Western Australia. Camel trekking and riding are the most common forms of camel tourism, but camels are also used in camel races such as the annual Alice Springs camel race. While camels do contribute to tourism, the number used is very small. Camels are used also for other purposes such as ploughing, transporting people and materials, dung for fuel, removal of woody weeds, as props in film and video production, and racing.
A large number of Aboriginal people perceive that feral camels are a resource that could be used. Positive benefits associated with camels include income from jobs involving mustering, pet meat operations, the sale of camels, tourism enterprises such as camel farms and safaris, meat for human and pet consumption, and products such as camel wool, and being used for bloodstock for overseas countries. (Edwards et al. 2008, p. 84)
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19. Can we move camels away from where people live?
Camels are not attracted to residential areas except when water is scarce. Exclusion fencing is a possible method of control for these regions, but a permanent fence is expensive. Additionally, when camels are very thirsty they cause much damage to fences in their search for water. The study of conservation managers showed that almost 30% of managers reported camel damage to fencing (Zeng & Edwards 2008 p. 70).
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Fencing can also be used to protect sites of cultural significance, as well as infrastructure such as airstrips from damage caused by camels. Fencing off waterholes to protect them from camels without providing alternate water may contravene animal welfare legislation, but methods such as the Patjarr spider can be used to allow camels access to water without allowing them to foul waterholes, or to fall into waterholes and die. The Patjarr Spider is made out of a wheel rim and attached to spokes. It is used to straddle rockholes to prevent camels from falling in the water and dying. The Spider is a Ngaanyatjarra Land Management invention and the name Patjarr derives from the place where they were designed. You can see a photo of one in Tangentyere Landcare's The Camel Book on page 13.
Camels can be dispersed away from residential areas through helicopter mustering, but they will quickly gather again around water sources.
Other areas that can be fenced to protect them from camels are stands of vulnerable native species such as quandongs, curly pod wattles and bean trees.
The high cost of fencing, particularly for areas greater than a few hectares, and the fact that fencing does not affect population size and growth in feral camels, greatly limits the applicability of fencing in managing the impacts of feral camels. Fencing is primarily applicable to the protection of high value cultural and conservation assets where the total exclusion of feral camels is mandatory to prevent any damage to the assets. Fencing is not considered a broadscale management tool (Saalfeld & Zeng 2008 p. 187).
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20. There aren't any camels - what are you spending the money on?
Feral camels congregate at water sources, so they are most obvious when conditions are dry and water sources are few. After rains, such as happened throughout much of the rangelands in 2010, the animals disperse. Much of their range is away from populated areas, including away from roads and other transport routes, so it can be difficult to find them when water is relatively abundant. However, as the rangelands landscape dries out, feral camels will once again congregate in large numbers at wetlands and around communities in the absence of any management – hence the need for the current project.
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21. Why is a research organisation like DKCRC involved in culling camels?
Ninti One is the non-profit company that managed the former DKCRC and enabled the research work to be implemented. Ninti One now manages the Intellectual Property of the former DKCRC, as well as the Australian Feral Camel Management Project.
In February 2010, Ninti One signed a contract with the Australian Government that specified that the priority for the current project is to reduce feral camel density at nominated environment sites. Since the AFCMP commenced, we have obtained improved information on feral camel densities and locations (see FAQ 1 above), and have revised the target densities at identified environmental sites (see FAQ 13 above). These changes have reduced the indicative removal numbers required to protect environmental assets.
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