Culling camels
It is not always economic to muster camels for sale.
Currently there are not enough markets, the distances
are too far and often there are no roads for trucks to
travel on. Shooting camels from the ground or air is
another way of reducing the numbers. Aerial culling is
usually more effective than ground culling. Like
mustering, culling is expensive work. Depending on the
density of camels, aerial culling currently costs around
20 to 25 dollars per camel. The cost can be as high as 42
dollars per camel. Culling to keep camel numbers down,
to a level where they are no longer damaging plants and
country, would cost at least 840,000 dollars per year in
the NT alone.
Aerial culling
Photograph: Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission
Photograph © Hans Boessem
Camels on the run
Some people do not like to see camels culled for cultural
and religious reasons.
In the end people will have to decide what is more
important - camels OR country.
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