interesting....saudis want australia's feral camels

aussie32 says on Jan 30, 2010, 08:23:

The saudis are welcome to as many camels as they want. Take them all. This is always a problem when you introduce a foreign species to a new eco system. We also have a problem with foxes killing our chickens, killing sheep, and attacking even cows....simply because the British wanted to enjoy their fox hunting in Australia many years ago. Camels did serve their purpose though, and are certainly a major part of Australia's history. The problem is that the authorities didn't plan this far ahead, and probably didn't realize just how fast 'camelids' can breed, as camels, guanacos, lama's, vicuna, and alpaca (all camelids, decendants of camels) are induced ovulators, so anytime the female is empty it only takes a mating sound from a horny male (called orgling) to get her in the mood for mating.

If water is in short supply, camels do a lot of damage trying to get it. I've seen plenty whilst driving up through Central Australia, and I've seen the damage they can do to small indigenous communities, stock troughs, and fencing. The sheer size of some of the herds results in significant damage to the eco system. The camel herds that are near such areas really do need to be either moved or culled. Of course, the whole thing needs to be handled delicately so as to avoid too much concern from both locals and the international community.

My best guess is that the government needs to do a thorough assessment, and probably cull the numbers down heaps. Pet food or fertilizer may be a couple of uses, and the same would apply to the plague of kangaroos and wild horses. For a country that's only been inhabited (by white folk) for a bit over 200 years, we really have brought a few problems on ourselves.

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dwmte7 says on Jan 30, 2010, 08:53:

talkin of the damage............in some of the links i read today, it talked about camels literally ripping the water pipes off house and structures to get to the water.

patriarch

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aussie32 says on Jan 30, 2010, 12:12:

yep, they are big and powerful creatures. A lot of the small aboriginal communities in central Oz have pretty simple water supplies and can't easily guard against an animal that big and heavy with a mindset on getting water. One thing they did to overcome the overpopulation of koalas was to sterilize them. This would be a very time and money intensive task to sterilize the camel population though, but I wonder if they have considered that option. I wouldn't think it would be too hard to spot herds with a chopper, shoot them with a tranq dart, sterilize either female or male. The op would be a fairly minor procedure. It would certainly be a humane way of dealing with the problem.

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dwmte7 says on Jan 30, 2010, 16:19:

might be some job openings there, friend, ya know.......casterating camels. ah, nuts!

patriarch

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aussie32 says on Jan 30, 2010, 19:58:

Lol :-) I bred alpacas for a few years, and they are descendants of the vicuna, which is a descendant of a camel, so part of the camelid family. I found when I wanted to castrate an underperfoming macho (male alpaca) that they had almost no testicles to speak of, or rather they were largely integral with their body, so real hard to get hold of......not that I like playing around with an animals testicles all that much...lol. Calves were always easier, just a rubber ring round the nuts and they would fall off within a week or two. Pretty much the same thing I'd like to use on child molesters! I don't know if it would be easier to sterilize a male or a female camel....but If the Oz governemt wants to pay me for the next year or two, I'm up for it, my brothers a chopper pilot, I'm a crack shot, and I know my way around the reproductive organs of most things. Hmmn...I wonder how that job would stack up against the top 10? lol

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billyb says on Jan 30, 2010, 20:07:

"This is always a problem when you introduce a foreign species to a new eco system. We also have a problem with foxes killing our chickens, killing sheep, and attacking even cows..."

But aren't sheep, chickens and cows foreign to Australia as well? Brought in by those same dastardly Brits?

"All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I never go there" Unkown (at least to me) wise man.

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aussie32 says on Jan 30, 2010, 20:22:

No..no, I read somewhere they evolved in Australia over thousands of years, in fact the prehistoric ancestors of these were as big as elephants, and one sheep would feed many tribes. Lol ;-).

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aussie32 says on Jan 30, 2010, 20:28:

Yep billyb, I stand corrected. I should have worded that as "some imports are good, some aren't so good". or maybe "don't introduce to Australia anything that doesn't taste good on a barbeque with a few beers". However, I think my previous comment holds true for introduced species. Some integrate well and compliment the environment, and some are just pests that need to be controlled or eradicated, such as camels, foxes. etc.

Actually, I think there are a few huge mutant sheep wandering around the maralinga area where those dastardly Brits carried out a shitload of nuclear tests in our backyard. Well, at the very least it killed and deformed a lot of foetuses and a few newborns around that time. Still, in the name of science....

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vinod says on Feb 1, 2010, 08:59:

Their prophet said that camel piss is medicinal.

Maybe the Saudis are running short of their most important medication.

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dwmte7 says on Feb 1, 2010, 11:54:

so is human urine. and if you get caught in the desert someplace/time and have no water, urine is sterile for about 36 hours so drink up!

patriarch

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vinod says on Feb 1, 2010, 12:56:

Given my religious background, I don't think I would be welcome there.

In any case, I have no intention of getting myself stranded in all that (to quote John Laws) sand, fucking sand everywhere.

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bam m says on Feb 1, 2010, 13:13:

exacto on the urine.. many people feel it is healthy to drink their own urine.

i'm just wondering what the saudis want to do to those poor camels..... i'll bet they use them for prepagos..

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aussie32 says on Feb 1, 2010, 14:04:

Urine might well save your life....but I'd be wanting therapy and hypnosis afterwards......yikes!

You'd have to stand on a really tall bucket....I think. Also, there would be no pleasing the camel.

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