The Management of Feral Camels in

Australia

The Australian Wildlife & Invasive Species Organization

Harun Abukar
Abstract
The purpose of this document is to provide information about the feral camels in Australia and
the impact that they are having on the wild outback of Australia. It includes a descriptive outline
of the issues of how these wild camels are dealt with and provides possible solutions to the
killing of thousands of feral camels in Australia due to their overpopulation and their negative
impacts on Australian wildlife & infrastructure. However, one might sense a persuasive tone to
take action to use to methods to control the camels of Australia. By going through this document
it allows one to discover the possible solutions that might help with the phenomenon that
Australia is facing to combat the overgrowth and destructions which is causing thousands of with
these wild camels to be executed.

The Problem with the Feral Australian Camels

The reason behind the killing of the feral Australian camels

There are many problems when it comes to wild dromedary camels in Australia. The first is that
there is a major overpopulation of camels in the wild outback. According to the BCC News in Formatted: Font: Not Italic
Australia there are approximately “750,000 roaming [wild camels] in the outback”. The issue
with this large number of camels is that there are more camels in the Australian outback than
then the harsh ecosystem can bear. These thousands of camels are wandering through the desert
and outback, eating 300 of the 350 species of native plants in Australia, causing a major decline
in the biodiversity of plants in the Australian wild.

That brings it to Tthe second reasonpoint on why camels are such a problem in Australia , which
is that they cause extreme damages to the natural environment. Also according to the BBC, t
these thousands of wild camels “” drink large amounts of water [and] gulp down gallons at a
time [causing] millions of pounds’ worth of damage to farms and waterholes” (Bell). Other
organizations, like the PestSmart organization, mentions that these feral camels are also causing
damage to the economy as they are competing with other local animals for food & other
resources, damaging the infrastructure of buildings and developments, and causing conflicts with
the Australian people due to car accidents (Feral). This shows the severe impact that camels have
on the natural ecosystems in Australia and due to their large numbers there is a more devastating
impact than would naturally occur.

The Main Problem

Although the impact of camels seems to be the main problem, the most crucial problem is that
these camels are getting rounded up and shot by the hundreds every day. Knowing the fact that
these camels are risking the survival of the outback and causing many resources of the
Australian desert to become scarce, it does not called for these camels to be slaughtered for no
reason and for their bodies to rot in the baking sun. According to The PestSmart organization, the
control methods that are used to control the population of camels includes capture, exclusion
fencing, ground shooting, and shooting from helicopters. In all instances of these methods, the
camels are killed (Feral).

What can we do instead of killing these camels?

There has to be There must me more bethicaltter solutions when it comes to the problem of the
killing of these camels. Even though these camels are causing adverse effects in the habitable
environment on the Australian outback, there has to be moreuch suitable way of reducing the
number of these camels and thus leading to a lesser damage. These solutions must help the
camels, the Australian public, its economy, and the Australian wildlife as well. By doing so it
will allow for all parties to gain benefits from the methods which are to used which include:

Sending them to the Middle East

The first proposition would be that the Australian government should collect these camels and
send them to countries in which they will be in good use , like the middle east, Africa, etc. The
camels could be used for milk, meat, urine and for transportation and thus helping both sides of
the transfer. As mentioned by the CNN these feral camels are “quite easy to manage” and tame
so it wouldn't be hard to prepare these camels to shipment(CNNHttp). The middle east has a big
market for camels, they which could be taken advantage of by sending these camels by the
thousands during the time that Muslims make Hajj, thus allowing for Muslims to slaughter their
animals humanely and the Australian governor to lower the number of these camels. They could
also be sent to the other middle eastern countries that have camel racing and beauty contests,
which would increase the market as well. Also, by Australia exporting thousands and thousands
of these camels, they could increase their GDP thus helping them in the long run.

Camel Farming
Another solution is that these camels are collected and taken to farms in which they are trained to
be more human friendly and they could be used in the factors of production like producing dairy.
They could also be sent to meat farms in which they are humanely slaughtered and used for
human consumption. The Australian general public might not have any problem in trying new
meat that they have never tried, as long as proper precautions are made with regards to how
these animals were killed. And considering that these animals are in the wild, they are eating
nothing but the fresh organic matter of the desert, so their meat is of top and healthy quality. This
solution relates to the first proposition made that if these organizations in Australia where to take
advantage of these camels they could laughter the meat (in the Halal way - in accordance to the
Law of Islam) and they would a have a huge market for camel meat in the Middle East and north
Africa that would be willing to negotiate in accepting the meat.

Sold as Large-Scale Grazers - “Lawn Mowers”

These camels could be sold in big numbers to large scale farmers who have thousands of acres of
land that they would like weeded out and “mowed” by these camel, not only will it save these
farmers time by not having to deal with the work and it will also save them money in the long
run. After these camels are grazed with these grasses for several decades, they should be then
sold to the camel farms in which will slaughter the meat and sell them to the public or send the
meat overseas to countries who will enjoy camel meat. Furthermore, considering the fact that
according to Robert Irwin’s book Camel, camels roughly live from 30 to 40 years, it will allow
the wild camels to be dealt with for through decadesecades and on a day to day basis in an
ethical manner(Irwin).

Will These Solutions Help?

If these solutions are met, they will cause a major decline in the number of camels, and by
executing these methods of exporting, creating farms, etc., it will cause these camels twhat
would possibly reproduce in the wild to stop reproducing due to the splitting up of camels by
gender and age. The implementation of of this methods will allow Australia to control the
population of these camels and keep their number on an approximate stable value. If these
methods are also employed, there will also not be hundreds of dead camels baking in the sun.
Cconsidering that the main reason the hunters are rounding them up and killing them is due to
their adverse effect in Australia at large.

Also, the development of these farms will increase a demand for a different type of dairy that
Australian businesses can use it to make funds and fuel the development of future plans for these
camels. The camels being sent to the middle east will increase foreign relations between middle
eastern countries and Australia and thus these middle eastern countries will import camels from
Australia to supply their needs for there camels. This process will be the greatest method that
will decresase the population greatly, in respect to the thousands of camels that will be exported.
These will help with the overpopulation of these camels in the wild and by controlling these
camels it will allow for the number to be more stable, and not keep increasing rapidly. These
methods are not suggesting that these animals should be obliterated from Australia all together,
but their number should be stable and not double every 8-10 years, as mentioned by the Northern
Territory Government in Australia (Government).

Conclusion
In Conclusion, there is a major problem in Australia because the camels are causing a lot of
damage when comes tom making water scarce for other natural animals, causing damage to
Australian infrastructure, and causing accidents with Australian people in their cause. All of
these factor have lead to the uprising of hunter groups and Australian officials to sponsor and
funs wild camel killing operations to help decrease their number. But, in fact, their methods are
very well effective.

The use of these sort of methods that were mentioned, will allow for both humans to embrace the
fruits of their effort and for the camels. These camels are in dire need to be controlled or their
population might continue to increase thus causing further damage to Australia. By capitalizing
on the potential to start sending these camels to the Middle East, farming these camels, or
sending them to graze it will Australia infrastructure and natural habitats in the Australian wild.
Overall, these solutions will allow the killing of the camels to decrease because these camels will
be protected through the use of these methods of separating them and exporting them. Thus, if
there is a decrease in the number of camels that will lead to a decrease in the number of killings,
thus leading to a better Australian society where the wildlife, human beings, and invasive species
(camels) ‘work together’.
References
Bell, Sarah. “Australia, home to the worlds largest camel herd.” BBC News, BBC, 19 May 2013,
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22522695.
“Feral Camel.” PestSmart Connect, www.pestsmart.org.au/pest-animal-species/camel/.
Government, Northern Territory. “Feral camel.” Northern Territory Government,
Https://Nt.gov.au, 17 Aug. 2015, nt.gov.au/environment/animals/feral-animals/feral-
camel.
“Http://Www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/Asiapcf/10/15/Australia.feral.camels/Index.html.” Journa
l of Surgery, 2015, pp. 01–07., doi:10.13188/2332-4139.s100001.
Irwin, Robert. Camel. Reaktion Books, 2010.