http://pix.alaporte.net/pub/d/14271-1/Camels+in+the+Outback.JPG The world’s largest feral camel population is not to be found roaming the Sahara Desert. It is munching its way, virtually unchecked, through the land of the kangaroo.
Interfering with native species, destroying bush tucker resources and causing millions of dollars in damage to farming infrastructure, the estimated herd of 1.2 million camels could double in the next 8 to 10 years, according to wildlife experts.
The Australian government is proposing urgent action to limit their numbers.
But not everyone sees the animals as pests. Some see the invasive species as a potential economic resource that can be harvested to provide much-needed income and employment to Australia’s rural communities.
Camelus dromedarius, the one-humped dromedary, first made its way down under in 1840, to assist in the exploration of the arid interior. Many more were imported from Rajasthan, India, in subsequent years to be used as draft animals. Camels made possible the construction of the 3,200-kilometer, or 2,000-mile, overland telegraph line between Adelaide, in South Australia, and Darwin, in the north, completed in 1872; and the 1,700-kilometer transcontinental railroad from Port Augusta in the south to Kalgoorlie in the west, completed in 1917.
But automobiles and trucks made camel trains obsolete. By the 1920s, some 20,000 working camels had been abandoned in the desert. Their descendants took their revenge, multiplying exponentially.
Today Australia has the only single-hump feral camel population in the world, spread over an estimated 3 million square kilometers, or 1.2 million square miles — an area close to one-third the land mass of the United States.
Paddy McHugh, an outback entrepreneur, describes himself as “a one-man band” when it comes to the camel industry in Australia. For the past 30 years, he has built a business around the lumbering giants, capturing them from the wild and selling them for meat and live export, as well as tourism and racing. He calls the federal government’s plan to cull 670,000 feral camels over the next four years, at an estimated cost of 19 million Australian dollars, or $17 million, “just ridiculous.”
Shooting the camels, Mr. McHugh says, “won’t fix the problem because they’ll still come back in 10 years’ time. The only way to fix this is through a commercial outcome.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/business/global/03iht-rbogcamel.html?src=busln
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
