NEWS: Australia's Camel Population Explodes

Due to lack of natural predators and the abundance of food, wild camels are over-running the Australian Outback. The population numbered at 500,000 currently is exploding at 10% a year and will double in just eight years. Previously this had not been such a problem because the camels were in more remote areas; they're now encroaching on farm land.



It's unfortunate when an animal is introduced into a foreign eco-system. The consequences to the animals and the eco-system can be dramatic and harmful.

Some of the less than desirable solutions to the problem are harvesting them for meat and commercial use and simply shooting them.



Related News Links:
www.camelsaust.com.au
www.news.com.au


[edit on 2-12-2004 by Banshee]

I thought Australia was always famous for Kangaroos. Damn, I can't refer to Kano as the kangaroo man anymore.

Five hundred thousand camels and the population is growing by a rate of ten percent a year? Wow! I wonder what camel meat tastes like. Chicken?

Camels are only the latest.
The rabbit was intorduced and went beserk because there were no predator.
So they introduced foxes to be the predators. The Foxes took one look at all the slow native animals and said "chase rabbits? screw that!"
They introduced the Cane Toad to eat bugs and the Cane Toad can't reach the bugs to eat them, instead they eat everything else.

White man has been SOOO good for Australia!

On the plus side, we are now exporting camels to Saudi Arabia because ours are healthier and genetically stronger!

Can we sell sand to them, too? We've got a lot of that. What about oil?

Did the camel population explosion cause too many humps, or did too many humps cause the camel population explosion?

Time for a serious roundup, bloody silly idea indeed, they destroy the land
and compete for food with the native animals!


McCamel burger with cheese please!

Ewww.. one exploding Camel is bad.. but the whole population at once? OMG! Some clean up operation !