Camels in australia
The camels in Australia were introduced to the continent by Europeans in the 19th century and were later released into the wild. The size of the camel population varies between around 300,000 and a million wild dromedaries , depending on estimates . The animals live primarily in areas with an arid climate : 50 percent of the camels live in Western Australia , 25 percent in the Northern Territory and 25 percent in western Queensland and the northern part of South Australia , and thus populate an area of 3.33 million square kilometers .
The first animals were brought to Australia as pack animals to explore the country by the English in the 1840s; later camel guides, mainly from India and Afghanistan, were added. For the development of the dry interior of Australia, the camels offered themselves thanks to their ability to adapt to extreme habitats.
Camels were not native to Australia before that time. When railways and trucks took over the transport in the 1920s, the animals were released into the wild. In the absence of natural enemies, they were able to reproduce undisturbed. In order to counter the resulting threat to the animal world and the landscapes of Australia, a total of 160,000 animals were shot down by snipers from helicopters over four years from 2009 as part of the National Feral Camel Action Plan ; another 100,000 animals are said to have fallen victim to a drought during this time. The remaining population was estimated at around 300,000 animals.
history
First animals
The first camel set foot on Australian soil in Adelaide on October 12, 1840 . It was brought to South Australia on a ship from the Canary Islands . In December 1840, two more camels were transported from the Canary Islands to Hobart in Tasmania . They should be used by the explorer Edward John Eyre on his expedition to Western Australia . However, Eyre had already left before the animals arrived, which is why they were shipped to Melbourne . There one of the animals gave birth to a cub - the first camel to be born in Australia. In 1842 this was bought by George Gipps , Governor of New South Wales , and brought to Sydney .
The next 24 camels did not arrive in Melbourne until June 1860 with Afghan camel drivers. These should be used in the expedition of Burke and Wills , who wanted to cross the continent from south to north. On August 20, 1860, the expedition started with 27 camels. The expedition failed, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills died near Cooper Creek . No camel survived the expedition either: some were slaughtered by the starving expedition participants. The rescue expedition led by John McKinlay set out with four camels and 24 horses, but they did not find Burke and Wills. However, the camels proved themselves as porters on this expedition.
Even William Gosse sat on his expedition to Central Australia camels and reached on 19 July 1873 as the first European to Uluru . The Horn Expedition in 1894 was Australia's first scientific expedition to take camels to the MacDonnell Ranges .
The first 121 camels intended for breeding reached Port Augusta in January 1866 . They were brought from Karachi to Beltana Station by Thomas Elder, Australia's largest camel importer , where a camel stud was established. The animals were so-called Kandahar camels, which could transport loads of up to 650 kilograms.
Opening up Australia
Camels were used in most of the large inland infrastructure development and infrastructure projects.
Between 1870 and 1872, most of Beltana Station's camels were used in the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line . The construction of the telegraph line began at the same time from the north and south. Camels were used to transport building materials and food. The animals used were led by camel drivers, the so-called Afghans .
During the construction of the 2900 km long transcontinental railway line The Ghan , which began in 1879, camels transported material and food to the construction sites.
When the gold rush developed in Coolgardie from 1884 onwards, camels were used to supply the gold prospectors there with food and drinking water.
In March 1884 a caravan with six camel drivers, 45 camels and eleven calves was driven through the desert from Marree to the gold fields. All of the camels reached the gold fields in good shape, with each camel bearing loads of between 135 and 270 kilograms.
In September 1884, another 85 camels for transport to Coolgardie by ship reached Albany . When the Golden Pipeline to supply water to the gold fields was completed in 1903, the camels and the camel handlers were no longer needed.
The place Marree was a station for the camel caravans on the way from South Australia to Alice Springs and Queensland . In Marree, leaders of Australian camel caravans built the first prayer room for Muslims.
Camels were often used in the construction of the Rabbit-Proof Fence . The fence, which is over 3000 kilometers long, was intended to limit the migration of rabbits , dingoes , kangaroos and emus .
At times, up to 350 camels were used as pack animals to transport material and food for the workers on the fence. To check the fence, "rabbit inspectors" were deployed, who drove a "camel cart" along the fence in southern Australia and inspected it.
The camels proved to be the ideal transport animals because they were persistent and could do without water for days. In the 1920s they became largely obsolete as the transport of goods by rail or truck was regulated.
"Afghan" camel drivers
A maximum of 3,000 camel drivers emigrated to Australia. The first arrived in South Australia in the 1840s when Joseph Bruce brought 18 of them there. Although most of them were from Baluchistan , Kashmir , Rajasthan , Egypt , Iran , Turkey, and Punjab , they were all called Afghans .
Most of the Afghans worked in the camel stud in Beltana until 1870, which they left after a strike. Well known is the camel guide Mahomet Saleh, who left Beltana Station with the discoverer Peter Warburton . Numerous camel drivers lived in the towns of Marree, Farina and Birdsville . Some of them employed other Afghans and owned up to 100 camels. Sometimes the camel drivers married Aboriginal women and in some cases also European women. The Afghans, however, settled in separate parts of the respective localities.
Around 1898 the Muslim community in Coolgardie consisted of 300 members, the largest in this state at the time. In the village there was a prayer room made of clay and covered with a tin roof. Racism against camel drivers was widespread and there were reports of unsolved killings and ill-treatment of camels by Muslims. When the Golden Pipeline supplied the gold fields with water from 1903, the entire Muslim community probably moved to Perth , the up-and-coming capital of the new state of Western Australia, with the decline of the city of Coolgardie .
Imperial Camel Corps
During the First World War , only female camels were used because they were easier to guide than their male counterparts. The camels, in connection with horses, were able to expand the field of war considerably. Although they needed more feed than horses, they were more agile in the desert terrain. Furthermore, the camels' range of action was around 90 kilometers, more than twice that of horses.
So Australian camels into two were brigades of the Entente with four companies and a third brigade with two Australian and two New Zealand companies used. After being built in January 1916, they reached their combat strength in December. The troops, called the Imperial Camel Corps , carried particularly light machine guns and light artillery weapons and were primarily used to transport war material. There was also a field ambulance with Australian camels. The camels were used because of their particular suitability for desert-like terrain on the Sinai Peninsula and in Palestine . The Australian soldiers came mainly from Western Australia and were previously mostly camel riders or camel traders.
The Imperial Camel Corps fought for the first time in 1916 against the Senussi on the western front with Egypt . Since the Imperial Camel Corps had proven itself in these deserts, the formation of further combat units was considered.
In 1917, parts of the Imperial Camel Corps took part in battles at Magdhaba , Rafah and Gaza . 350 camels were used in the battle of Magdhaba. In the second battle for Gaza on April 19, the Imperial Camel Corps suffered considerable casualties with 345 dead. When the Turkish defensive collapsed, the Imperial Camel Corps was involved in the attack on Jerusalem. The weather there was bad, the terrain unsuitable for the animals, and both camels and camel riders fell ill with mange . After the conquest of Jerusalem, the Imperial Camel Corps was withdrawn from the battle line and the strength of the crew was reduced in May 1918. In May 1919 the Imperial Camel Corps was disbanded.
Todays situation
Environmental issues and population control
Camel plague
Since the camels can adapt ideally to the dry climate and have no natural enemies in Australia, they were able to reproduce explosively. The camel population - more precisely the number of dromedaries in Australia - was estimated at around one million animals in 2009, and 1.2 million in 2011. After the implementation of a “camel control program”, in the course of which 160,000 dromedaries were shot down within four years, and after a drought during which their numbers were reduced by a further 100,000 animals, the population was only reduced in 2013 by project manager Jan Ferguson estimated at a total of 300,000 animals. The estimate of one million animals from 2009 was probably too high.
Camels can feed on 80% of Australia's available flora . From two camels per square kilometer, the environment is increasingly damaged. This state is considered to have been reached in large areas of the Northern Territory , for example in the Simpson Desert with its peripheral areas, the Central Ranges , the Great Sand Desert and the Tanami Desert . This number is expected to double in eight years. Scientists believe the rising camel population is a state of emergency that threatens to destroy parts of Australia's desert ecosystem.
The camels have become a threatening food competition for other wild animals and for commercial rearing of sheep and cattle. Their feeding behavior also leads to considerable erosion damage . The aboriginal feedstock population in these areas is seriously threatened by camel grazing and the terrain is increasingly eroding. In addition, there is damage to the infrastructure (an example is the destruction of a 140-kilometer fence line 350 km southwest of Alice Springs in 2007) and numerous accidents caused by camels on roads in Inner Australia.
Furthermore, camels threaten aboriginal sacred sites, such as Kaltukatjara or Mutitjulu in the Uluṟu-Kata-Tjuṯa National Park . They pollute watering holes in Australia's arid regions, where thousands of camels living, dying and rotting during drought can be found.
Kaltukatjara (Docker River, 350 inhabitants) was besieged by around 6000 camels in the dry season of 2009. In their search for water, the animals caused severe damage to the building and water infrastructure of the place. They also invaded the airfield's tarmac en masse and hindered air traffic, which may be vital. The town's drinking water was endangered by decaying camel carcasses. The government of the Northern Territory was forced to cull 3604 camels at a cost of A $ 49,000 in an emergency , for which the animals were rounded up by helicopter about 15 km outside the village. Because of the subsequent plague of flies and the strong smell of decay, many residents left the place.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett approved in 2009 19 million in July AUD $ (about € 11 million) for the National Feral Camel Action plan , the use of snipers from helicopters provided for the culling of 350,000 camels over four years. The program was controversial, not least because of the health risks posed by the rotting cadavers. Cattle breeders doubted that the measure would limit the natural growth of animals, let alone reduce the number.
Proposals by animal welfare organizations on birth control were countered by the fact that, since camels can live up to 30 years of age, the reduction in the population by two thirds, to one camel per 10 km², required to limit the damage, was not achieved.
According to one source, the methane emitted by the digestion of camels is 0.97 tons per animal (a dairy cow causes 2.39 tons per year, a pig 0.03 tons per year). This puts camels in third place behind cattle and buffalo List of animals with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. Here it literally says: "A camel emits 0.97 of a carbon-equivalent ton per year." These 0.97 tons of CO 2 equivalent per camel per year therefore correspond to 46 kg of methane per year per camel. Instead, other sources report methane emissions of 47 kg / year / camel, which corresponds to a carbon dioxide equivalent of approx. 1 ton / year (as it is about 21 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide).
The shadow minister for agriculture of the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, John Cobb , endorsed the culling of wild camels at the beginning of 2010, pointing out that the amount of climate-damaging gases produced by them was 1.05 million tons per year. This would correspond to around three percent of the annual emissions from automobiles in Australia, i.e. around 300,000 vehicles. The Minister for Climate Change of the Laboratory Government, Penny Wong, objected, because according to the guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol and the “International Carbon Accounting Standards” ( German accounting standard in emissions trading ) only the emissions of domesticated camels are recognized.
The damage caused by camels to fragile ecosystems, cultural sites, isolated communities and pastureland is barely noticed by the vast majority of the Australian population. The British public expressed indignation after the report in The Times newspaper of the 2009 Kaltukatjara cull . Australia behaves like a " third world country" and deserves to be excluded from the group of the twenty most important industrial and emerging countries . Others called for Australia to be boycotted as a travel destination.
Beginning of August 2009 called the news anchor Erin Burnett on CNBC the then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a "serial killer" and the planned cull " genocide ": "That's genocide. Camelcide. "
Government Minister Rob Knight was particularly criticized by animal welfare groups who also called for a tourism boycott. Australian ranchers welcomed the government's approach. Ultimately, only 160,000 animals were shot down by the end of 2013; another 100,000 animals are said to have fallen victim to a drought during this time. The remaining population was estimated at around 300,000 animals. Earlier estimates of more than one million animals were too high.
The Goldfields Nullarbor Rangelands Biosecurity Association (GNRBA) carries out a controlled cull from the air every year. The cost of the five-day helicopter mission in November 2018 was over A $ 100,000. In the summer of 2018/19, more than 2500 camels were shot down in Western Australia within one month.
As a result of heat, extreme drought and a sharp increase in their population, the animals in South Australia roamed the streets in search of water, especially in remote Aboriginal communities, damaging buildings and other infrastructure. In doing so, they impaired the native vegetation, destroyed cultural sites and contaminated water supplies. The thirsty camels invade localities because they smell water there; For example, they feel that condensation is escaping from air conditioning units and destroy it when they try to drink. The carcasses of thirsty camels in and at the watering holes that are essential for survival not only pollute them, they also endanger the drinking water supply for people. On January 8, 2020, the South Australian Ministry of the Environment and Water began a five-day forced killing of camels, the first mass cull in the area. The aim of the action is the shooting down of 4,000 to 5,000 camels by professional snipers from helicopters, "in accordance with the highest standards of animal welfare."
Cost of damage caused by wild camels
Between 2009 and 2013, the Australian state provided A $ 19 million for the Australian Feral Camel Management Project . The damage caused by wild camels was over $ 14 million in 2009. $ 5.51 million is accounted for by damage to infrastructure and private property, but also to people, especially from car accidents. The cost of controlling the camels is $ 2.35 million. Another $ 3.42 million is the additional feed requirement of cattle herds that compete with the camels for the available natural resources. The annual cost of greenhouse gas emissions from camels has been estimated at $ 3.73 million.
Camel meat as a commercial article
Except for the humps, camel meat is low in fat and grainy. Camel meat has lower cholesterol than beef and only 1.9 grams of fat per 100 grams of meat. The meat content of a dromedary is between 50 and 76 percent. Camel meat is mainly eaten in Darwin and Alice Springs and also offered as a burger , for which the tender meat of young animals is primarily used, as it resembles beef in appearance and taste.
The international market for camel products such as camel meat , live animals or related by-products is of significant size, especially in the Muslim world. The size of the Muslim camel meat market in Australia is difficult to gauge. The interest of the mosques in Sydney and Perth shows that the Muslims in the big cities are interested in this, but their need would only be 30 animals per week and their slaughter must take place according to the Halāl diet.
Compared to the international market, the camel industry in Australia lags behind as the wild camels are located in remote areas of the country and are therefore very far from the domestic and international markets. The recovery of wild camels began in the late 1980s. Estimates of the number of camels used in 2007 are 5000–6000 animals, of which 3600–4600 were processed into dog or cat food, fewer than 400 were exported live, and around a thousand animals were sold on the domestic market for human consumption. A well developed camel industry would be an important tool for the control and management of the wild camels and their effects and could provide much-needed jobs for the weak economic structure in the desert of Australia. However, the lack of slaughterhouses with the appropriate location and certification, as well as the appropriate infrastructure for removal, currently makes commercial use of camels on a large scale impossible. The industry will need some time to develop its full potential, so this branch of the economy will not contribute to a reduction of the camel population to sustainable numbers in the short term.
The use of existing mobile slaughterhouses was also suggested in order to utilize the camel meat available after the cull. The “ NT Environment Department ” doubts that such facilities can keep up with the helicopters used for hunting. In addition, it is almost impossible to drive vehicles of this type into the impassable areas where the camels are shot down.
The wild camels of Australia have a theoretical market potential of AUD $ 1 billion, currently the income of the Australian camel industry for the export of live animals, tourism and meat trade is only $ 580,000 annually. A report from the Desert Knowledge Co-operative Resource Center in Alice Springs contained a long list of failed ventures to exploit wild camels.
Tourism and sport
Camel races have been going on in Australia for a long time. In 1988 Australian millionaire Arthur Earle organized a camel race of 3,236 kilometers over six stations to commemorate the importance of camels in opening up Australia and in connection with the 200th anniversary of Australia. The race, in which 28 camel riders took part, led from Uluṟu to Alice Springs (410 km), then to Boulia (761 km), from there to Longreach and from Longreach to Charleville (530 km). The rest of the way led to Warwick (1,242 km) and from this town to the Gold Coast (140 km). This camel race is considered to be the longest such race that has ever taken place.
Every year in July, a camel race, the Marree Camel Cup , is held near Marree . A camel race for the Camel Racing Cup has been taking place near Alice Springs since 1970 , which is accompanied by other events and is held on a circuit. The most highly endowed race in Australia is the Sheikh Zayed International Camel Endurance Race in Hughenden in Queensland , which runs over a distance of 150 kilometers and promises the winner a prize money of AUD $ 50,000. Another race in Queensland, The Boulia Desert Sands - Camel Racing , is endowed with AUD $ 25,000 for first prize.
Excursions with domesticated camels are offered to tourists in around 50 camel farms.
The Ghan railway, which crosses the continent from south to north, runs along the old caravan route from Adelaide to Darwin .
literature
- Nevill de Rouen Forth: A fighting colonel of Camel Corps: the life and experiences of Lt.-Col. NB de Lancey Forth. Merlin Books, Braunton, Devon 1991, ISBN 0-86303-496-9 .
- George Langley, Edmee M. Langley: Sand, sweat and camels: the Australian companies of the Imperial Camel Corps. Kilmore, Victoria 1976, ISBN 0-909706-51-4 .
- Tom L. McKnight: The Camel in Australia. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1969.
- Glenn Edwards, Murray McGregor, Benxiang Zeng et al. (Eds.): Managing the impacts of feral camels in Australia: a new way of doing business (2008)
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ The cost of greenhouse gas emissions can be calculated using the Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme . For further information see also → Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme on en.wikipedia.org, in English
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Plague in Australia: snipers killed 160,000 camels. In: Spiegel online. November 21, 2013, accessed March 16, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Der Spiegel: Australia plans to shoot down hundreds of thousands of camels , June 9, 2011
- ↑ Welcome to the Camels Australia Export Web site. ( Memento from March 31, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Plague and Attraction. Wild camels in Australia on n-tv.de , accessed on February 12, 2010
- ↑ a b Der Spiegel: Plague in Australia: Snipers killed 160,000 camels November 21, 2013, accessed on January 15, 2014
- ^ History of the camels in Australia on alpaka-universum.de , accessed on February 12, 2010
- ↑ a b Arthur Clark: Camels Down Under. (No longer available online.) In: Saudi Aramco World. 1988, archived from the original on July 29, 2011 ; Retrieved February 18, 2010 .
- ↑ a b Information on islamfortoday.com ( Memento of 30 November 2007 at the Internet Archive ), accessed 12 February 2010
- ^ Muslims in Australia , accessed February 12, 2010
- ↑ Tina Baier: Thousands of camels shot down in Australia. Retrieved January 28, 2020 .
- ^ Afghan Camel Handlers , accessed February 12, 2010
- ^ The Early Muslim Community in Australia ( Memento October 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed February 12, 2010
- ↑ a b Imperial Camel Corps on Australian War Memoriam , accessed February 18, 2010
- ^ The Imperial Camel Corps Brigade at chakoten.dk ( Memento August 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 18, 2010
- ^ A b c Anna Henderson: Eradicating camels will cut emissions , Australian Broadcasting Corporation , January 14, 2010
- ↑ a b c d e The Australian: theaustralian.com.au Ready to make a killing in $ 1bn camel market , July 25, 2009
- ↑ a b Feral Animals of the Northern Territory on nt.gov.au ( January 11, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 7, 2011
- ↑ Feral Camel - Camelus dromedarius. (No longer available online.) In: Department of Land Resource Management. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014 ; accessed on March 15, 2015 .
- ↑ Abdullah Al Shimemeri * Yaseen Arabi: A review of large animal vehicle accidents with special focus on Arabian camels. In :, Journal of Emergency Medicine, Trauma & Acute Care. Retrieved March 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Amy Simmons: Rotting camels pollute sacred waterholes , Australian Broadcasting Corporation , December 3, 2009
- ^ Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Kirsty Nancarrow: Camels still problem despite massive cull , December 17, 2009
- ↑ Anna Henderson: Wild camels terrorize NT community , Australian Broadcasting Corporation 25 November 2009
- ↑ theguardian.com: Australian camel cull plan angers animal welfare groups , November 26, 2009
- ↑ Dave Richards: A rotten waste? In: Alice Online. November 9, 2011, accessed March 16, 2015 .
- ^ The Independent: Australia Plans to Kill Thirsty Camels , November 26, 2009, accessed February 12, 2010
- ↑ Larine Statham: Row simmers over camel cull. (No longer available online.) In: The Independent Weekly. February 26, 2010, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; Retrieved March 4, 2010 .
- ↑ Camel cull prompts health risk fears , Australian Broadcasting Corporation, December 4th 2009
- ↑ TOM ARUP: $ 19m for camel cull. In: The Independent Weekly. July 4, 2009, accessed March 16, 2010 .
- ↑ awt.com.au , Australian Wildlife Services: Camels and Greenhouse gas
- ↑ a b c theaustralian.com.au , The Australian , Feral camels clear in Penny Wong's carbon count , February 8, 2010
- ↑ theaustralian.com.au , The Australian: Feral camels clear in Penny Wong's carbon count , February 8, 2010
- ↑ feralcamels.com.au , Australian Government, Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Center, Report 54: Cross-jurisdictional management of feral camels to protect natural resource management and cultural values , 2008
- ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald: Brits outraged by Australian camel cull December 2, 2009
- ↑ brisbanetimes.com.au , Brisbane Times, Larine Statham: Brits outraged by Australian camel cull , December 2, 2009
- ↑ Peter Mitchell: Rudd panned for one lousy camel cull , The Age , August 6, 2009
- ↑ Sara Everingham: Camel cull sparks emotive debate , Australian Broadcasting Corporation, December 11th 2009
- ^ Sophie Morris: Nats call for mass cull of dirty camels ( Memento of April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), December 29, 2009
- ^ Jarrod Lucas: Feral camel 'plague' forces pastoralists to shoot thousands and call for urgent cull. In: ABC of January 24, 2019.
- ↑ Australia fires: Thousands of camels being slaughtered. In: BBC News of January 8, 2020.
- ↑ Isadora Bogle: Camel cull in South Australia's remote APY Lands to begin, following sharp increase in population. In: Australian Broadcasting Corporation of January 7, 2020./
- ^ Caddy Brain: Report released as feral camel cull ends. IN: ABC of November 21, 2013.
- ↑ environment.gov.au ( Memento of March 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Australian Government, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts : Camel fact sheet , in English
- ↑ Celine Patricia Finke: Substantial quality parameters in camel meat, dissertation (pdf) , accessed on February 21, 2010
- ↑ Information on pm-magazin.de ( Memento from May 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 12, 2010
- ↑ GP Edwards include: desertknowledgecrc.com.au Managing the impacts of feral camels in Australia: a new way of doing business , 2008
- ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald , Larine Statham: Camel cull plan won't tackle increase ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 22, 2010
- ^ The Daily Telegraph , Natasha Robinson: $ 1bn commercial opportunity in camel cull , July 25, 2009
- ^ The Great Australian Camel Race at infosources.org , accessed February 18, 2010
- ^ Marree Camel Cup 2009 at marree.com.au, accessed February 12, 2010
- ↑ www.camelcup.com.au
- ↑ Information on the Sheikh Zayed International camel endurance race , accessed on February 18, 2010
- ↑ Information on Boulia Desert Sands - Camel Racing ( Memento of May 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 18, 2010
