Guest Editorial: Managing the impacts of feral camels
Guest Editorial: Managing the impacts of feral camels Journal Article
The Rangeland Journal
- Author(s): McGregor, MJ, Edwards, GP,
- Published: 2010
- Volume: 32
Abstract: One-humped dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) were first introduced to Australia in 1840 from the Canary Islands. Thereafter the majority came from the Indian subcontinent (McKnight 1969) and were used to open up the arid interior for European settlement (McKnight 1969). Camels were well suited to working in remote dry areas and were used as a means of transport, for freight and as draught animals (McKnight 1969). It is thought that over a 27-year period between 1880 and 1907 approximately 20 000 camels were imported. It was at least 40 years after the first importation that quarantine regulations were developed and enforced; it is probably simply fortuitous that the common camel diseases found in the Middle East and south Asia are not present in Australian camels today. The replacement of the camel by the motor vehicle as a mode of transport in the early 20th century resulted in large numbers of camels being released into the wild and the subsequent establishment of a feral population. Records show that the number of captive camels registered in 1941 was 2300, compared with 12 649 in 1920 (McKnight 1969). There is no reliable estimate of the number of camels that were released into the wild, although it is thought that it may have been between 5000 and 10 000 camels (Edwards et al. 2004).
- Urls: http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=RJv32n1_ED.pdf
- Keywords: feral camel