the band best keep away from charging camels, as we don't want more injury's
* 15:02 14 March 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* New Scientist Environment and ReutersThirsty wild camels in drought-stricken Australia are damaging the environment and property as they compete with people and other animals for food and water.
Camels recently rampaged through the Western Desert Aboriginal community of Warakurna. "There were a couple of hundred," says the operator of a local bar, the Warakurna Roadhouse. "They did a lot of damage searching for water, trampling air conditioning hoses, taps and pipes."
Australia has the world's largest wild camel population. They were first brought to the country in the 18th century to help explorers venture into the dry interior.
"An estimated one million feral camels, whose numbers double every eight years, compete with native animals and livestock, threaten native plants, wreck fences, bores and tanks, and invade Aboriginal sites," says Glenn Edwards, from the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC), in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Australia's worst drought in 100 years is blamed for the recent rampage by camels. But increasing numbers of wild camels has caused serious environmental, economic and cultural damage right across the outback for years, says Edwards.
Camel cullThe DKCRC says a national feral camel management plan is urgently needed. The centre advocates the use of a combination of methods to reduce camel numbers, from culling to live exports.
"Some culling will be unavoidable," Edwards said, ahead of a camel management meeting in Perth, Western Australia, on Thursday. "In unpopulated areas, for example in the Simpson Desert, culling will be the only option."
Most camels are currently exported live to south-east Asia where they are slaughtered. The lack of an abattoir in Australia with a camel meat export license prevents direct camel meat exports.
The Centralian Advocate newspaper in Alice Springs this month reported thousands of camels were dying of thirst at Docker River, 600 kilometres (370 miles) west of Alice Springs.
The camel problem was so bad at Warakurna, a community of 140 people, that gunmen had been hired to kill 100 camels per week, said the newspaper. Warakurna will freeze the meat and transport it to Perth for use in pet food.
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