June 30, 2009

Are there wild (feral) camels in the deserts of Africa/Middle East/South Asia?

mongolia
killingcraz asked:


I know there are 'wild' ones in Australia and 2 Humped wild ones in Mongolia but how about the Middle East, etc.? It is normal when traveling in the desert that you see the camels roam? Or are they fully grown?

Content

Filed under Other - Africa & Middle East by kris

Spread the Word!

Permalink Print Comment

Comments on Are there wild (feral) camels in the deserts of Africa/Middle East/South Asia? »

July 1, 2009

lalu212 @ 3:19 pm

I don`t really know much about South Asia but in all desert areas, camels are highly valued. The traditional way of life for those who live in desert land is a nomadic one. Nomads travel with herds of cattle and camels. Due to their usefulness and importance, any wild camel would be captured and tamed. So while there is a possibility, I doubt it.

July 3, 2009

networking girl @ 11:52 pm

most of them (middle east) are owned by people .. I haven't seen any that are wild till now

July 7, 2009

Galactic Emperor @ 9:38 am

The almost 14 million dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in Somalia, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and Indian subcontinent). An estimated half of the worlds camel population are found in Somalia and in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, where the camel is an important part of nomadic Somali life. They provide the Somali people with milk, food and transportation.

The Bactrian camel is now reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, mostly domesticated. It is thought that there are about 1000 wild Bactrian camels in the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.

There is a substantial feral population of dromedaries estimated at up to 700,000 in central parts of Australia, descended from individuals introduced as transport animals in the 19th century and early 20th century by the Afghans. This population is growing at approximately 11% per year. The government of South Australia has decided to cull the animals using aerial marksmen, because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.

A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, survived in the Southwest United States until the 1900s. These animals, imported from Turkey, were part of the US Camel Corps experiment and used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released after the project was terminated. A descendant of one of these was seen by a backpacker in Los Padres National Forest in 1972. Twenty-three Bactrian camels were brought to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.

July 9, 2009

tin m @ 5:15 am

a Camel has single (one) hump , the one with double humps are are dromedaries ; which are found in east asia and parts of north west africa , but in the middle east proper they are mostly the normal one hump camels. The Lama belongs to the same family but has no hump and is found in colder regions in Asia. The ones in Australia are off spring of normal camels that were brought from Afghanistan over a century before. Like horse breeding camels also have breeds , some are specially bread for racing, some are just for show, some just carry tourists, and some are for serious work and hauling things around or going long distances with little food or water. There are also rare breeds of white fur and black fur camels found in Saudi Arabia. In the old days (before water pumps) camels were also used for thousands of years on farms to operate a mill that raises water from the well to canals to irrigate the farm ; or to rotate an actual stone mill to crush grains and wheat etc. They are also useful to provide milk and meat.
The camels roaming in the desert are owned by people , but they don't keep them in a barn they let them roam to feed from trees and wild grass etc. This is also because Camels come back home on their own. When one does not the owner will then go look for it, specially at night they can be a hazard to cars traveling on the highway.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to comment

Login