I understand that before the railway, camels were used to get settlers and their belongings into the arid middle of the country, I guess in the Alice Springs area. Once the railway was built camels became redundant and most were turned loose. I understand they prospered nicely and now you have far too many. Do you actually hunt them, and are there that many that you can hunt them. Just really curious I guess. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

There is a big population of wild camels in australia.I have never personally hunted them.No idea how many there are either,never really thought about it.I will look up some numbers for you mate.

A large Property owner & Entrupener by the Name of Thomas Elder imported camels & Indian handlers (Mistakingly called Afghans over here and the name stuck) Their Main Depot was in Marree in the far North of south Australia .They were used o build the Adeliade to Darwin Telegraph,Trans Austraian & central australian Railway as well as being the sole source of transport for goods & frieght in the centre of Australia from the 1800's to well into the 1930's .It was after this time they were realiesd & multiplied & prospered to a point of I think the last estimation was there were roughly abut 700,000 in the wild through out australia
Wislt this may seem a lot .It must be remembered that most of the population of Australia lives in the coastal regions & the centre of our country is mostly uninhabital desert (read a camels idea of heaven ) there has always been a market for the ****ed things as pet Food & for of late Human consumption .But the cost of transporting the product has always been a problem for the Shooter & Processor ! More recntly there has been a Trade in the live export ofyoung camels back to Sudi Arabia due to their pure breeding .But adult animaqls are still considered a feral animal that should be shot on sight

Dave

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I don’t mean to hijack this but I have a question about Camels in Texas. Around Wichita Falls there are 2 ranches that run camels with cattle. I am wondering if anybody has any idea why? I thought it might be to help with controlling browse and improving grass. You can see the Hi browse line from Highway 287 where there are camels. It could be they are selling for fur? But I also understand that Army still has a couple of herds out in west Texas for desert training. It could also be the guy whom run a camel expedtion in west Texas?

Wished we could find something to eat the Mesquite trees!
James

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I'll second that.
Apparently over the years the Arabs, who race them, have interbred their best stock like crazy to the point where they're all weak, wimpy, have bucked teeth and no chins......if you understand my point.
And while hunting on a property in Nth Western NSW about 2 years back I was told by the owner that there was a feral camel farm of sort next door.
A few had escaped onto his property and we weren't to shoot them as they were worth AUD$40,000 each!!
We happened to catch up with the 3 of them during the weekend, a adult male & adult female with junior in tow, and no word of a lie they were the biggest darned camels I've ever seen!!
Small wonder the Arabs wanted them.
We chased them down a dirt track in my pickup and we must've been doing about 40km/h(25mph) which is pretty good for a camel.

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Cheers & God Bless

Sporting Shooters Association Of Australia - http://www.ssaa.org.au/

have interbred their best stock like crazy to the point where they're all weak, wimpy, have bucked teeth and no chins......if you understand my point.

Sounds like most of the Employees Of the Dept of National Parks & wild life that I have to deal with of late (to say nothing of our Firearms branch )


Dave

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Say - do you guys know the State of Arizona Game and Fish has a regulation against camel hunting?

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"Firearms only have two enemies - rust and politicans" author unknown

From this month's Scientific American (June '06) 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago column.

June 1856
Texas Camels - "The Arabian camels for which a government expedition was sent out to the Mediterranean arrived in the Bay of Matagorda, Texas. They are to be employed as transports on the western deserts of our country."

Bye
Jack

Yep - these were the ones imported for the Southwest military transport. Brought along a character named "Hajababa" to be the camel caretaker and to train the U.S. troops on camel transport.

The experiment only lasted a couple of years before the government abandoned the program and turned the camels loose in the desert. Ol' Hajababa became a local character in the Arizona area. The feral camels began competing with wildlife and livestock for the sparse vegetation and folks began shooting them on sight, like wild burros (which still inhibit the Grand Canyon) and such.

For some reason, the G&F passed a regulation against shooting them, but since there's been no reports of live camels in the state for years, guess the elimination was successful.

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"Firearms only have two enemies - rust and politicans" author unknown

Camels PROTECTED ??????????????????????? Oh Dear ! I'm going to take a couple of VALLIUM & have a little lay down ! Just the thought !!!!


Dave

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"ALL TIMES WASTED WOTS NOT SPENT SHOOTIN"