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Abstract:
The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) report “Managing the impacts of feral camels in Australia: a new way of doing business” was released in 2008. This report clarified the distribution, abundance and population dynamics of feral camels, evaluated stakeholder perceptions of feral camels, assessed feral camel impacts, reviewed the options available for managing these impacts and outlined a management framework for feral camels in Australia. Feral camels were found to occur in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland and to occupy an area 3.3 million km in size. Forty three percent of camels were found to be on Aboriginal land. The overall population was estimated to be 953,000 camels and modelling indicated that the number of camels was doubling about every nine years. There was a general appreciation by Aboriginal people that camels damage natural and cultural resources and affect Aboriginal customary use of country. Most Aboriginal people viewed feral camels as a potential resource but acknowledged that camels needed to be controlled. There was a general lack of support for culling which was seen as wasteful. Pastoral and conservation managers recognised the impacts that camels are having on the natural environment and on pastoral production and accepted that efforts were needed to manage these impacts. Both groups favoured culling and commercial use to manage camel impacts. Feral camels cost more than $10M in direct economic impacts (including infrastructure damage, competition with livestock and feral camel management costs) each year. Costs to the natural environment and the cultural values of Aboriginal people are significant but difficult to quantify in dollar terms. These costs dwarf any positive economic benefits that camels currently provide ($0.6M pa). Feral camels are also an important emitter of greenhouse gases. Aerial culling was considered to be the most cost-effective and humane way of reducing the density of camels over the large expanses that need to be managed. Ground-based culling has application only in particular situations. Camels may be commercially harvested over relatively large areas for meat, the establishment of domestic herds or for live export, but it is difficult to harvest all camels and not all camels are of commercial quality. Fencing to protect vulnerable assets from camels is expensive and has application only at the local scale. Being a long-lived species with a low reproductive rate, camels are an unsuitable candidate for fertility control. The DKCRC report recommends that feral camels be managed to a long-term target density of 0.1–0.2 camels/km at property to regional scales in order to mitigate broad-scale negative impacts. The DKCRC project also recommended a national approach to managing the impacts of feral camels and defined four management zones with management prescriptions for each zone. The DKCRC research was the catalyst for the Australian Feral Camel Management Project and the National Feral Camel Action Plan. The two are coupled- the former delivering immediate management actions to reduce camel impacts while the latter provides guidance on managing feral camels and their impacts now and into the future.
