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Camels

I believe that the wild Bactrian is or soon will be recognised as a distinct speices,but no doubt there will be the usual quibbles from the "lumpers" and "splitters" in taxonomy.
 
Camel dairy creams the profits
By Sylvia Smith
BBC, Mauritania


Camels are more like cats than cows, or so Nancy Abeiderrahmane believes.


"They tolerate humans in exchange for food, but they can control whether they let down their milk or not."

But these temperamental animals are becoming a cornerstone of the local economy in Mauritania, thanks to a project that English-born Mrs Abeiderrahmane has set up to pasteurise and market their milk.

Camels used to be milked next to the road "on demand", with the risk of spreading disease in a desert country where temperatures soar as high as 50 C.

Although this is a long-established tradition, in the sweltering heat the milk quickly went off and was wasted.

Unlike cows, female camels need their young around them if they are to give a steady supply of milk.

So every mother camel wears a sort of bra to prevent the baby feeding whenever it wants.

Herds usually consist of about 100 female camels and each produces about 10 litres a day.

Quality

The semi-nomadic herdsmen bring the camel milk to one of the collection points that have been set up close to where they graze their camels.



Demand has grown over the years because we deliver it to thousands of corner shops and it has caught on as a refreshing and convenient drink with the public

Nancy Abeiderrahmane
The milk is measured and tested for cleanliness and quality, and the herdsmen receive an agreed amount per litre.

"Our scheme has helped slow down urban drift," says Mrs Abeiderrahmane.

"Herdsmen now have a steady source of income throughout the year. They don't feel the financial necessity to move into town."

But it is in the capital, Nouakchott, that the milk is pasteurised and packaged.

It is brought to a state-of-the art aluminium factory by tankers, and in the course of a few hours is turned into a tetra-packed modern product.

Demand

"We customised standard dairy equipment to suit the special properties of camel milk," says Mrs Abeiderrahmane.

"Demand has grown over the years because we deliver it to thousands of corner shops and it has caught on as a refreshing and convenient drink with the public."


Camel's milk is nutritious and low in fat
Although the packs of milk are popular, in the early days there were hurdles to overcome.

Even the idea of selling milk to someone you didn't know seemed strange to the very traditional tribesmen.

But Mrs Abeiderrahmane persisted. "It's partly due to the fact that I think camel's milk is exquisite," she confesses.

"It is absolutely delicious and healthy."

Camel's milk has less fat and more vitamins than cow's milk. What's more, it makes very good long-life milk.

For Mrs Abeiderrahmane this super-healthy low fat camel milk has also proved that the country doesn't have to be dependent on imported milk.

It can hold its own against European imports and save Mauritania much needed foreign currency

"Given the right conditions pasteurised milk could be sold to Europe in the form of cheese," Mrs Abeiderrahmane claims.

"It's only European Union red tape and regulations that are holding us back. We need to meet certain standards because it is an animal product.

"Buyers from some of Europe's most prestigious food shops think the cheese is great. I'm sure it will appeal to the European taste for new and exotic delicacies."

Mrs Abeiderrahmane is hopeful of exporting the milk as cheese - to be known as camelbert.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5272430.stm
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Camel sausages hit Aussie barbies
www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-paci ... 50903.html
By Bonnie Malkin in Alice Springs
Wednesday August 05 2009

AN Australian abattoir selling camel sausages, mince and steaks to restaurants across Australia aims to turn a "camel plague" in the outback into a lucrative and environmentally sustainable industry.

At the Centralian Gold abattoir outside Alice Springs, business is brisk. Scores of animals are brought in each week to be slaughtered, deboned and packaged into sausages, steaks and mince.

But the largest slabs of meat on the racks are not beef, lamb or even kangaroo, but camel. Garry Dann, who owns the business, describes camel meat as "beautiful, healthy and organic" and says demand for the product is growing every month.

Mr Dann, who sells camel meat to restaurants across Australia, is at the forefront of a movement that wants to turn a "camel plague" in the outback into a lucrative and environmentally sustainable industry.

The animals, which now number more than one million, are destroying fragile ecosystems and trampling all over indigenous sacred sites. They foul ancient water holes and chomp through the boughs of endangered native trees.

Travelling in large, aggressive packs, they prevent Aboriginal women from venturing into the countryside for fear of being attacked or trampled.

The situation is expected to get worse, with the camel population predicted to double every eight to 10 years unless action is taken.

The problem has grown so large that the Australian government recently pledged £10m (€11.7m) towards developing a camel control plan, which is expected to involve shooting them from helicopters.

But instead of felling thousands of the beasts and leaving their carcasses to rot, Mr Dann believes that the pests can be harnessed into a viable agribusiness. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

- Bonnie Malkin in Alice Springs
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I wonder if camel sausages have humps...?
 
Court claim over camel 'beauty'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8311277.stm

Arabian camel (file photo)
Camels are highly prized in Arabia and can fetch huge sums of money

A $250,000 compensation claim has been made against Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco for causing the death of a prized camel, local press reports say.

The case, to be heard on Monday, involves a three-year-old black camel which fell into a large hole dug in the desert to store crude oil.

The camel's owner is quoted saying the beast had been entered in one of the region's popular camel beauty pageants.

The compensation claim is based on the value experts put on the camel.

The owner, Abdullah Al-Saiari, said the she-camel was grazing in a desert pasture, about 150 miles (250km) west of Ahsa, when the accident happened.

"She was part of the Camel Beauty Contest," he said, the Saudi Gazette reported.
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ramonmercado said:
Court claim over camel 'beauty'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8311277.stm

Arabian camel (file photo)
Camels are highly prized in Arabia and can fetch huge sums of money

A $250,000 compensation claim has been made against Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco for causing the death of a prized camel, local press reports say.

The case, to be heard on Monday, involves a three-year-old black camel which fell into a large hole dug in the desert to store crude oil.

The camel's owner is quoted saying the beast had been entered in one of the region's popular camel beauty pageants.

The compensation claim is based on the value experts put on the camel.

The owner, Abdullah Al-Saiari, said the she-camel was grazing in a desert pasture, about 150 miles (250km) west of Ahsa, when the accident happened.

"She was part of the Camel Beauty Contest," he said, the Saudi Gazette reported.
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Well, since the camels aren't draped all over in black, the men probably have much more opportunity to gauge the camels' good looks rather than that of women :lol:
 
Giant camel fossil found in Arctic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21673940
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC World Service

The giant camels were thought to have lived about 3.5 million years ago and are believed to be direct ancestors of our modern species

Camels are well known for their ability to survive the hot and dry conditions of the desert, but a study suggests they once thrived in colder climes.

Scientists have unearthed the fossilised remains of a giant species of camel in Canada's High Arctic.

An analysis of protein found in the bones has revealed that this creature, which lived about 3.5 million years ago, is an ancestor of today's species.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Dr Mike Buckley, an author of the paper from the University of Manchester, said: "What's interesting about this story is the location: this is the northernmost evidence of camels."

Cold conditions

The mid-Pliocene Epoch was a warm period of the Earth's history - but surviving in the Arctic would have still been tough.

The ancient camels would have had to cope with long and harsh winters, with temperatures plunging well below freezing. There would have been snow storms and months of perpetual darkness.


Scientists found 30 fragments of bone in the High Arctic
Nonetheless, at this time, the polar region would have been covered in forest.

While scientists have known for some time that camels evolved in North America, with the earliest creatures dating to about 45 million years ago, they were astonished to find a species at such a high latitude.

Over the course of three expeditions, which began in 2006, researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature collected 30 fragments of fossilised leg bone from Ellesmere Island in Canada.

Their size suggested that the animal was about 30% larger that today's camels, measuring about 2.7m from foot to shoulder.

Despite its bulk, the researchers believe it would have been similar in appearance - although it probably had a shaggier coat to stay warm.

To investigate further, the team took collagen - the dominant protein found in bone - from the fossils, and compared this with collagen found in other fossils and modern animals.

Dr Buckley said: "These biomolecules tell us that it is a direct ancestor of modern camels."

He said the findings provided a new insight into the evolution of this animal.

"It suggests that many of the adaptations that we currently think of, in terms of camels being adapted to warm desert-like environments, could have actually originated through adaptation to quite the opposite extreme... cold, harsh environments," he explained.

The scientists believe that the camel's hump (which stores fat, not water as is sometimes thought) could provide the reserves needed for an Arctic six-month winter.

Their large eyes would have helped them to see in the low light, and their flat feet would have been just as useful for walking on snow as they are on sand.
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The archaeologist had a hunch it was there.

A complete camel skeleton dug up from a 17th-century Austrian cellar shows tell-tale signs that it was a valuable riding animal in the Ottoman army.

It was probably left behind or traded in the town of Tulln following the Ottoman siege of nearby Vienna in 1683.

DNA analysis shows that the beast - the first intact camel skeleton found in central Europe - was a Bactrian-dromedary hybrid, popular in the army.

It also has bone defects that suggest it wore a harness and was ridden. ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32145248
 
The popularity of camel beauty pageants has been noted before on FTMB. Sadly, it seems the sort of cheating we've seen in Western human pageants has now spread to these events as well ...

12 Sexy Camels Kicked Out of Beauty Contest for Using Botox
... Officials with the King Abdulaziz festival kicked out a dozen camels from a camel beauty contest for receiving Botox injections, according to a report published today (Jan. 23) in The National, an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based newspaper.

More than 30,000 camels and 300,000 human visitors showed up for the second annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which runs from Jan. 1to Feb. 1 this year, The National reported. And the top spot of that horde of humped herbivores is worth a pretty penny: This year's prize money totals $57 million, with $31.8 million set aside for awards for "pageantry."

Perhaps it's all that cash driving the sketchy behavior among camel showers.

"They use Botox for the lips, the nose, the upper lips, the lower lips and even the jaw," Ali Al Mazrouei, a festival regular, told The National. "It makes the head more inflated, so when the camel comes it's like, 'Oh look at how big that head is. It has big lips, a big nose.'"

Days before the festival, a veterinarian was also "caught red-handed" both giving camels Botox and performing surgery to reduce the size of their ears, The National reported.

The National also reported that, in addition to the height, shape and placement of its hump, "a full, droopy lip and large features are essential to achieving camel celebrity status in the multimillion-dollar industry of camel pageantry."
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SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/61508-lovely-cheating-botox-camels.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
The popularity of camel beauty pageants has been noted before on FTMB. Sadly, it seems the sort of cheating we've seen in Western human pageants has now spread to these events as well ...



SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/61508-lovely-cheating-botox-camels.html
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acamel.jpg
 
“The sexual life of the damel is stranger than anyone thinks:
At the height of the mating season, it attempts to bugger the Sphinx,
But the Sphinx’s posterior sphincter is bunged up with the sands of the Nile,
Which accounts for the hump on the camel,
And the Sphinx’s inscrutable smile.”

Author unknown.

maximus otter
 
As it happens, the camel enhancement cheating continues. If anything, it may be getting worse ...
Dozens of camels barred from Saudi beauty contest over Botox

Saudi authorities have conducted their biggest-ever crackdown on camel beauty contestants that received Botox injections and other artificial touch-ups, ... with over 40 camels disqualified from the annual pageant.

Saudi Arabia’s popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which kicked off earlier this month, invites the breeders of the most beautiful camels to compete for some $66 million in prize money. Botox injections, face lifts and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Jurors decide the winner based on the shape of the camels’ heads, necks, humps, dress and postures.

Judges at the monthlong festival in the desert northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, are escalating their clamp down on artificially enhanced camels, ... using “specialized and advanced” technology to detect tampering. ...

This year, authorities discovered dozens of breeders had stretched out the lips and noses of camels, used hormones to boost the beasts’ muscles, injected camels’ heads and lips with Botox to make them bigger, inflated body parts with rubber bands and used fillers to relax their faces. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/oddities-health-travel-lifestyle-camels-b3e4d60991ce053d185cb8ed9cbbca74
 
She had a hunch a better life awaited her in Dubai.

Katie Higgins had owned and ridden horses all her life, but a move to Dubai brought about a partnership with some different four-legged friends.

Now the 29-year-old from Caherlistrane in County Galway is part of the first ever women's camel racing team in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The art teacher made history in the country when she competed in its first licensed female camel championship race at Al Marmoom Racetrack in October. Since then, she and the other women have competed in four races.

She is proud to be Ireland's first female camel jockey.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60129656
 
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