Australia’s devastating bushfires and drought has revived the debate on how best to manage feral camel populations as they consume scarce water and food supplies.
Aboriginal leaders in South Australia’s APY Lands in January conducted a five-day aerial cull of 10,000 wild camels, citing the need to protect communities and native wildlife.
“These groups are putting pressure on the remote Aboriginal communities in the APY Lands and the pastoral operations as the camels search for water,” a statement from the APY Executive said.
Camels in Western Australia Source: AAP
“Coupled with dry conditions, animal welfare issues, threats to communities, scarce water, health and environment impacts, destroying the country and eating all Anangu food supplies, endangering travellers on the Stuart Highway and on the Lands.”
The cull involves professional shooters performing the kill shot from a helicopter "in accordance with the highest standards of animal welfare". Those carcasses that can be easily accessed are then burned or buried.
Over a billion animals have been killed in Australia’s extended bushfire season. Feral camels may well be among them. The 2010 National Feral Camel Management Plan estimates over one million wild camels are spread across Australia, with that number expected to double within 10 years, if left unmanaged. Most of the feral camel population is in Western Australia (46 per cent), the Northern Territory (26 per cent) and South Australia (18 per cent).
Sunrise at Summer Land Camel Farm southeast of Brisbane. Source: Supplied
How the non-native camel came to Australia
Camels were brought over to Australia by British settlers between 1870 and 1920 from the Arabian Peninsula, India and Afghanistan. Their ability to go weeks without water and carry loads across great distances in extreme heat were valued by the explorers who sought to navigate Australia’s desert interior.
The camels’ handlers, the Afghan cameleers, helped to build the transport and communication infrastructure in Australia’s regional economies. By the 1930s, the camels were surpassed by the motorised transport with many released into the wild where their numbers ballooned.
The culling of the animals has been criticised as harsh and unnecessary by some including descendants of the Afghan cameleers and business owners who are finding an economic market for camel products, such as camel milk and camel milk chocolate.
Camels are unloaded at a port in Adelaide. Source: State library of south Australia
Cameleer descendant Sameen Akhbar based in Perth says he would like to see a more compassionate approach taken to the management of the feral camels.
“Our ancestors served Australia in a very harsh environment where they were not allowed to bring their families along so the camels were the only companions and it is sad to see these companions are killed in an inhumane way,” he told SBS’s Urdu program.
He says in the Middle East camels are viewed as a valuable commodity and says he believes such an approach could work well in Australia by expanding the commercial use of camels in the meat and dairy sectors.
The owner of Australia’s first and largest commercial camel milk dairy operation in Australia says the market for his product has only grown since 2015.
Jeff Flood, co-founder of Summer Land Camels, says the market still has large untapped potential.
"We are not only selling locally but exporting overseas,” he said.
He says demand for his product – including skincare items, cream, cheese and powder milk - is high in Hong Kong and mainland China. He is in talks to increase orders for buyers in the UK, the European Union and Middle Eastern countries.
Camel dairy products. Source: Supplied
“There is a huge potential as Australia is sitting on a gold mine and is unable to cash in due to a lack of willingness.”
Call for more streamlined approach
Mr Flood it is imperative that the feral camel population is well-managed, saying there is more room for co-operation with agriculture producers to generate more economic benefits.
Dr Christine Cooper, from Curtin University’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, says culling is necessary to control the damage to properties and destruction of native wildlife, particularly as the animals go in search of water.
She told SBS French, there are also animal welfare benefits to the aerial culling of camels as the alternative could be that they die from starvation in the hot, dry climate.
Mr Flood says he thinks camels, despite being a non-native animal, are now well adapted to the Australian environment, including through their consumption of pest weeds. He says he believes the environmental footprint of the camel on the land is not higher than that of other animals.
“Camels require no more water than any other livestock and produces less methane and if that is the reason for shooting then we need to shoot all other animals,” he said.
A camel milk processing lab at Summer Land Camel Farm, Queensland. Source: Supplied
He also questions the animal welfare aspect of aerial culling when no checks are done on whether the animal has been fatally shot as opposed to injured and then left to bleed out.
The Australian Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals - Feral Livestock Animals states that camel culling must comply with the code.
"Euthanasia by an overdose of an anaesthetic administrated by a veterinarian or another trained person is acceptable," the document says.
