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Camel plague in Australia

R

Riverside

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
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19
Location
Australia
These photos are from a while back but thought you all might be interested. We went through many bullets and fencing material to try and get rid of the 1000's of camels that bombarded our station in search of Food and water, in the end we had to just wait for them to move on to the next place. Camels are a major menace in the Northern Territory.

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About 12 months ago we had 1000 of wild camels come through our N.T. station from the west in search of food and water.



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When the camels came we had recently had a small amount of rain which filled up the dams we had made on the side of the station roads, but the camels soon drank them dry and ate pretty much everything in sight, they soon began dying of thirst.



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A big dust storm that came through the station


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Looking out the lounge room window at the dust storm


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WOW! Weve had crickets and grasshoppers but never Camels! Bet ya they could eat lots of groceries! Now dust storms weve had, but the dust was not as red. Thanks for the pictures of your part of the world. And the rest of ya out there form outside North America, get your pictures up here too! We all love em'! Everytime i look at who's online there a bunch of ya who oughta put some pictures on so we all can see too! Thanks Riverside!
 
Thanks for the photos Riverside. I could help you out by taking a couple of those camels off your hands. Word is that they make great wolf control. They could give our Great Pyrenees a hand. Can I assume that they are introduced and not indigenous?
 
Now this is something ya just don't see in Nebraska!!!! I can't imagine 1000 head of camels wandering through. With the weather conditions that you have, dry and not much food, it's amazing that anything can survive in the wild there. Glad to see though that it does rain there, in your other post...Thanks a bunch for this mini vacation for me..luved it! keep em coming!
 
Wow! And to think I get ticked off if there are a couple of deer eating hay in my yard!! If camels are dieing of thirst it must be dry. What part of Australia are you. I had a chance to visit your country back in the early 90's. I was a lot younger and between wives at the time, backpacked and hitchhiked all over had the best time of my life bar none.
 
We've got about 100,000 wolves we would GIVE you. They should take care of the feral animal problems down under and then since it is still legal do so there,you can poison them all.
 
ANGUS327 said:
Wow! And to think I get ticked off if there are a couple of deer eating hay in my yard!! If camels are dieing of thirst it must be dry. What part of Australia are you. I had a chance to visit your country back in the early 90's. I was a lot younger and between wives at the time, backpacked and hitchhiked all over had the best time of my life bar none.
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The camel problem is on our station in the Northern Territory which is near Alice Springs but closer to Ayres Rock, I grew up on the station and when I married I moved to south of Adelaide in South Australia to run our Shorthorn Stud on our 2 properties here.
 
Riverside said:
ANGUS327 said:
Wow! And to think I get ticked off if there are a couple of deer eating hay in my yard!! If camels are dieing of thirst it must be dry. What part of Australia are you. I had a chance to visit your country back in the early 90's. I was a lot younger and between wives at the time, backpacked and hitchhiked all over had the best time of my life bar none.
Click to expand...

The camel problem is on our station in the Northern Territory which is near Alice Springs but closer to Ayres Rock, I grew up on the station and when I married I moved to south of Adelaide in South Australia to run our Shorthorn Stud on our 2 properties here.
Click to expand...

I may have camped on your station while I was there. I spent some time in Alice Springs and climbed Ayers Rock. If I remember correctly the Todd River ran through one of the stations I had the privilage to stay at although the wasn't any water in it at the time. Small world, I still have a spot in my heart for Australia and will take my children there sometime.
 
Very interesting. I never thought Camels could be a pest, although they aren't indigeneous to Austrailia which I guess makes them a pest by definition.


So Very interesting. I never thought Wild Horses could be a pest, although they aren't indigeneous to America which I guess makes them a pest by definition.
 
Amazing. Have you thought of opening a camel slaughtering plant? They should at least make good dog food.
 
Cal said:
Amazing. Have you thought of opening a camel slaughtering plant? They should at least make good dog food.
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They do make good dog food and there are a coupleof meatworks (slaughtering plants) within Australia that do kill them. Camel has actually become a popular meat in the fancy restaurants along with Crocodile and Kangaroo (camel actually tatse alot like beef but it is tough). The only problem is that camels are really hard to catch and transport, they are actually quite dumb and dangerous. There was a time a few years back our neighbour tried to drove a heap of camels from our place to his so he could truck them off, they drove them for about 200kms and then the weather changed and the camels scattered and they lost them. They also don'toffloadfrom the trucks well, the slightes bit of weather change or upset they just will NOT get off the truck and they spit and kick in all directions. So in all they are good for nothing!!
 
Someone else suggested turning this problem into a meal . . . sounds like it's easier said than done!

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/551281
 
I did not know about the camels either. A few years back a old livestock auction was holding exotic animal auctions the sale I attended one went for $8,000 they had to deliver it to California
I was told by a soldier that he ate camel steaks and he also said they tasted like beef to him while he was on duty.
 


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