A herd of wild camels browsing
on native shrubs
Camels eat all sorts of plants
Camels are the largest plant-eating animals in Australia. They have a
split upper lip for browsing leaves off trees and shrubs.
Camels eat many different types of plants depending on the season. They
will eat fresh grasses but seem to prefer leaves from trees and shrubs,
such as supplejack, whitewood, emu bush, saltbush, applebush and acacia.
They will eat almost all plants but their favourite plants and trees are
quandongs, plumbush and bean trees. These are important bush tucker
plants for Aboriginal people.
Although people think that camels spend most of their time in sand dune
country, camels often travel into rough stoney country in search of their
favourite plants.
If too many camels eat from the same tree, that tree can be killed.
Camels can stop young trees from growing up!
Photograph: Peter Seidel
Camel eating grass
Photograph: Dave Allbrecht
Photograph: Michael Barritt
9
bush potato
quandong
Photograph: Dave Allbrecht
bean tree
plumbush
Photograph: Peter Seidel
